


After Loki

by barton_lover



Series: After /Clint Is [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, Hurt Clint Barton, Protective Avengers, Psychological Torture, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-24
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-01-02 10:35:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 27,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21160268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/barton_lover/pseuds/barton_lover
Summary: It has only been a few weeks after the Manhattan incident and clean-up has begun.  But when the World Security Council considers clean-up as removing Agent Barton from service, permanently, the Avengers must help keep him safe.  Can they keep their new friend safe when he is slowly beginning to believe that the Council may be right?  That this is perfect punishment for all the crimes he committed?





	1. Finding Out

Nick Fury was stunned. That was the only word for it. Stunned beyond belief. His one good eye stared at the blackened faces of The Council as his mind tried to play catch up. Even after working underneath these people for so long, Fury couldn't seriously believe what they had said. He couldn't have heard them right. There was just no way.

"Excuse me?" Fury questioned when he finally decided he could speak without screaming at these idiots. A Council member to Fury’s right sighed deeply. Centering his one good eye on the person, Fury waited for an answer. He just hoped that it was one that he wanted to hear.

"We understand that Agent Barton has been a good asset but this... Situation, cements the fact that he can't be trusted," the member said. Fury gaped. He knew that, since Clint had joined S.H.I.E.L.D, the Council had been trying to either kill him or toss him in jail, but it had never been anything like this. This couldn’t happening. Coulson, the one who always fought for Clint, wouldn’t be able to defend the archer. Ex-Director Peggy Carter had also fought for Clint once or twice until she began losing her memory. Fury's eye darkened as rage settled into his once shocked form. This was almost worse then them wanting to nuke Manhattan. "You must understand the idea of wanting only trust worthy employees. Especially considering your line of work."

"Agent Barton is more than just a good asset. He is a damned ass great agent. And what you are talking about isn't normal termination," Fury mentioned, trying to appeal to their more human side. But after dealing with them for so long the old Director wondered if they even were human. Their decisions half the time was not good for anyone. Another person made a similar sighing sound but it was almost more grunting. Fury looked in that direction now. His rage grew. This was unbelievable. They all agreed on this?

"That one agent put over two hundred agents in medical and killed over thirty in just under three days. And that’s not even a full count of who was lost. We are still getting reports from the Pegasus site. We're not even fully sure if Agent Barton is completely under control. He could still be a spy for Loki," the person said. Fury’s eye narrowed and before he could do something stupid, he turned away from the Council. He took a moment to get back under control before looking back.

"We trained him to withstand normal situations. Loki was far from normal!" Fury snapped, looking over each and every member. It had been well known that none of the Council members had ever been in a battle, or even trained. They never had any idea what their orders did to the agents under Fury’s control. And sometimes, no matter how hard Fury fought them, they’d still get their way. Case in point being the nuke sent to Manhattan that thankfully Stark caught and used against the Chitauri.

"Our point, Director. Agent Barton was trained for this," someone said. Fury snarled. They just didn’t get it. And Fury doubted they ever fully would.

"Not for Loki's magic! Hell, we cleared Dr. Eric Selvig. Why is our own agent getting different treatment?" Fury questioned. Silence was his answer. Maybe his pleas were actually getting through to them. But, then again. He had also ‘pleaded’ with them over the nuke and we saw how that went. "My agent will continue working under me unless Psych does not clear him for any mission. I will personally hold a trial to see if my agent in fine. Until then, you will have to wait. But, if you have a more valid reason for his termination, then I will consider it. For now though, fuck off!"

With that the Director hit the end call button and the screens went blank. Fury took a second to get his emotions back under control. He really wished Coulson was back. But... It was too soon to know if his plan would work. In the mean time, Clint needed to be protected. Trouble was brewing and the Director wasn't sure he'd be able to stop it. Fury had done all he could with the Council. But he needed to do better. Feeling a little calmer, he spun on his heel and ‘calmly’ stalked out of the room. Waiting at the door was none other than Maria Hill.

"What did they say?" Hill asked, her tone curious and stiff. Fury sighed and started walking. It wouldn’t do to have them overheard. This was a private and very dangerous conversation. Hill must have understood as she quietly followed Fury all the way to the Director’s office. Once the door was closed, Hill turned on Fury. "Sir?"

"They want to terminate Agent Barton," was all Fury answered with. Hill stiffened. She had known of the Council’s disappointment in Clint’s actions since he arrive at S.H.I.E.L.D. A disappointment that only increased when he saved Agent Romanoff, even though she proved to be a valuable agent.

"Understandable based on his recent actions," Hill retorted, her voice harsh. Fury looked up to her and just glared. Hill frowned. What wasn’t Fury saying about all this? Termination wasn’t all that bad. Agents were set up in very nice retirement areas and continued to get paid, medical and safety. But as Hill thought more on it, she realized what Fury was saying. Her eyes widened in shock and as her mouth started to drop a bit in surprise, Fury nodded. "Oh. Are you going to inform the Avengers?" 

“I don’t know,” Fury sighed. It wasn’t like he had been keeping track of everyone after Thor took Loki back to Asgard. They all had needed time off after what they all went through. No one could have come out of that mentally unscathed. Especially Agents Barton and Romanoff. After all, their handler of over ten or so years just died and that’s not even taking into consideration Agent Barton’s involvement with Loki.

"I can still reach Natasha,” Hill added. Fury gave her a curious glance. Hill had never fully ever gotten along with Romanoff. That had always been because of how often she spent time with Barton and Hill and Barton never had that great a relationship. But before all this, Romanoff had begun worked a lot of missions without Barton and typically Hill ended up as her handler. So having accessible ways to communicate with the agent wasn’t fully a surprise. "Sir, should I tell her everything?"

"Just let her know to watch out for Barton. We can’t lose anymore."


	2. Hiding Feelings

Clint sighed deeply as he stepped out from the 68 degree temp from inside compared to the 87 degree temp outside. Being down here in Miami at the beach was nice, but Clint wasn’t ready to go and actually enjoy himself. Too much had happened. He couldn’t let himself feel comfortable. Couldn’t allow himself to enjoy anything. The oceanfront property (owned by none other than Tony Stark) was beautiful and much larger than Clint and Natasha had really need. And Clint tended to stay on the large porch that overlooked the beach below. Meanwhile, Natasha always held a small fondness for swimming (unless being shot at). So she was enjoying the place down on the beach and the ocean.

From the edge of the porch, Clint could see the spy diving into the water some good distance away. From her movements, Clint could see that she was happy and enjoying the ocean. It made him feel guilty for having her worry about him. Natasha hadn’t said anything yet. Nor had she pressed him as his troubled thoughts kept turning back to Loki and Coulson. More than anything, Clint just wanted to disappear. Trade his life for Coulson’s.

"You okay?" asked a newly familiar voice to his right, Pepper Potts. A few days after Natasha and Clint arrived at Tony's less than modest beach house, Pepper and Tony had joined them. And since Bruce had been staying with Tony at the still being refurbished tower, the genius dragged the poor doctor along. At this point, only Thor (who was still in Asgard) and Steve Rogers were missing. Steve's road trip across the US seemed to be taking longer than the super soldier expected.

"I'm good," Clint lied. Since getting released from Loki's mind control, that's just about all the archer could do or say. If Psych or Natasha ever actually got a hold of him and learned how bad he was, he’d never be an agent again. Thankfully, most of the Avengers were still busy dealing with their own troubles to really wonder if Clint was indeed okay. Pepper had proven herself to be rather intuitive and no matter how often Clint said he was good, she would give him a disbelieving look. Not that much of a surprise as she worked with Tony. Ignoring her look, Clint noted the was grill lite and ready for food to be cooked. "You cooking?"

Pepper looked momentarily confused. Until she noticed the grill prepped and ready to go. She laughed while shaking her head and backing away, raising her hands as if Clint was threatening her. Clint smirked at her reaction. It had been mentioned once or twice that Pepper couldn’t cook. Nor could Tony. Natasha always made things really spicy so more times than not, Bruce and Clint were the ones doing the cooking. "No! I was getting it ready for Bruce! He's making us burgers and hot dogs for lunch."

Clint chuckled at Pepper’s reaction. Bruce chose that moment to come out with a huge plate filled with uncooked food. Seeing it, Clint shifted to help the doc carry it all. It was nearly triple what the group would normally make for all of them. Bruce smiled lightly to Clint and Pepper, to which both returned one as, with Clint’s help, the tray was put down onto the picnic table.

“Seems excessive,” Clint noted.

“I have some more still in the kitchen if one of you would be so kind,” Bruce requested. Clint raised an eyebrow, looking the tray over. How much did Bruce expect them all to eat? Then again, this tray seemed to only be burgers. No hot dogs and, after Tony complained once, they also tended to grill corn cobs for a side.

"Dear me! Is Tony planning a party without my okay?" she asked. Bruce laughed as Clint faded back, going to use her distraction as a chance to get away. While he would love to help Bruce out some more, Clint just needed a moment to get away from everyone. Guilt was eating at him a bit to harshly today and seeing everyone else so happy wasn’t helping.

"No. Heard that Captain America was on the way. And after shawarma, I know that man's appetite is as large as my own. So we don't want to run out," Bruce mentioned sounding more relaxed than ever. Clint couldn’t help but smile. Everyone seemed to be really enjoying this break. Even though Clint couldn’t, he liked that everyone else was doing good.

With them distracted by conversation, Clint jumped down to the beach. As his bare feet touched the hot sand, Clint started to go for a run. Normally, he would never run outside of training but recently he had taken a liking to running from his thoughts and the other Avengers. He almost felt like he could just disappear into the idea of putting one foot in front of the other. But whenever he slowed, he would remember Coulson always coming to stop him from overdoing it. Without the agent here, Clint just kept running till he dropped. Or until Natasha caught him, but he gave her a hard time about it when she did.

It was a good twenty minutes or so later that Clint realized how far he had gotten. His breathing was just on the edge of getting shallow and sweat was sliding down his body. Slowing down to a walk, Clint turned and walked backwards away from the new Avengers hang-out. As much as he wanted to go back for Bruce's cooking, he really didn't want to deal with Natasha's 'are you okay' looks or Pepper’s questioning. And certainly not Tony and his over exuberance about everything. Though, it would be nice to see Steve and actually get formally introduced to the man.

"Fuck," Clint cursed as he stopped. It took another moment or so before Clint convinced himself to move again. Then he started walking back to the house. A few steps into walking, his hawk-like eyes picked up on startling red rushing closer to him. Natasha was coming for him. Groaning, Clint stopped walking. He wasn’t gonna willingly go see her right now. As she came into better view, Clint noted she had covered her bathing suit with a coverall that Clint knew had spaces for weapons, her wallet and phone. That meant she had been chasing him, likely since he first started running. Normally she was faster than that.

"Clint!" Natasha called from a good distance away. Based on her tone, the archer was almost surprised that she didn’t wave her hand. She only ever called out to him like that if she thought he was in danger. But how was he in danger here? Confused, Clint started walking toward her. Maybe something was actually wrong. "Hey. You went for a run?"

Clint simply nodded, trying hard not to make it seem like that was the stupidest question in the world. She knew that he had taken to running a bit more now. But ever since Clint found out about Coulson, Natasha had been on him. Watching him. Being here at Tony’s place she had backed off a bit but... Natasha couldn’t fully stop him. She wasn’t Coulson. He was going to keep going.

The archer knew he was crashing. And he was crashing hard. It would be better if he spoke to someone else about what was going on. But Clint just didn’t feel comfortable with doing that right now. He needed more time. Natasha would have been the best choice to confide in, but she still was too close to S.H.I.E.L.D for her not to report his mental status. Pepper seemed like a safe choice, but it would be unfair to unload on her when she was likely dealing with all of Tony’s shit. Tony wouldn’t be able to handle it. Nor would Steve or Bruce. They all their own emotional baggage. Clint had to just keep hiding in the background, crashing and burning.

"We're missing lunch," she mentioned, her eyes starting to scan him over. Natasha knew that he hadn't been eating well since the attack and finding out about Coulson. It wasn’t like he was avoiding eating. Just, he was never in the mood to eat. And when he was, it was more like snacking mood than meal mood. Clint shrugged as he debated how to really answer her. What answer wouldn’t piss her off too much?

"Not hungry," was his final decision, likely not the best choice but, who cared. Natasha tilted her head a moment later as his stomach let out a growl of disapproval. Clint almost audibly groaned. Why did his body have to betray him? He just wanted to be left alone at this point. What could he say that would work? "Not in the mood for Stark, okay?"

"I'm not in the mood to deal with him but I still eat food. You've been missing a lot of our meals. How much have you been eating lately?" Natasha questioned. Clint turned to face the ocean now. He missed nearly every meal with the ‘team’ since Tony and Bruce arrived. To be honest he had only grabbed some snacks to munch on two nights ago and before that, Clint couldn’t remember when he ate. Thinking of that for some reason made him remember the three days underneath Loki. The god hadn’t let anyone eat. Or even sleep. They only got drinks after one of the scientists passed out from dehydration. But, it wasn’t just them. Loki hadn’t eaten or slept either. "Clint?"

"Fine, I'll go back with you," Clint conceded, tired of fighting with her. Really, he had wanted to say something like 'leave me alone woman', but the attitude he used in the first word seemed to make his comment perfectly clear. Natasha's raised eyebrows showed that she understood and was shocked. Clint had never treated her so harshly unless she was getting close to whatever was bothering him. Knowing he fucked up, Clint groaned and raised a hand to rub at his eyes, forehead and temples even as he turned back to look at her. "Look, Tasha, I'm sorry I'm being such a prick. I'm just tired."

"I thought you were sleeping fine?" Natasha mentioned, her concern growing. Clint turned away from her again and began walking. After a few seconds, the archer realized he was walking toward the ocean. Spinning back around, he noted that Natasha only shifted slightly so as to better watch him.

"Sometimes. Not often enough," Clint half lied. In actuality, he barely slept more than an hour a night and forced himself to take a ton of naps to hide his lack of sleep from everyone. But the amount wasn't anywhere close to nearly enough. And it was getting harder to hide it. Especially after one of his runs. "God, Nat! I just want it all to be over."

"All of what?" Natasha lightly pressed. She didn't want to scare him off now. This was the first time he mentioned something was bothering him since Medical. Clint spun away to look out over the ocean for a moment and she feared that he was clamming up again. But when he slowly turned back to look at her again, his eyes looked thousands of years older than they had only seconds before. His wall was finally coming down and she was finally going to learn what was going through her partner’s head.

"The guilt," Clint began but was stopped by the sounds of ringing. Natasha groaned as she went and dug her phone out of her pocket. Her eyes focused on Clint with an apologetic look until they both looked to the name of the caller. All Natasha could do was grimace. Clint smirked. That particular grimace was only reserved for one person; Maria Hill. Though they had been getting along better, Natasha still didn't fully care for the other woman enough to have too many friendly conversation but it was getting better the more it happened. As for now, Clint could see Natasha almost was close chucking her phone in the ocean to avoid answering the call. But, Natasha had been having a bad feeling all day and now speaking with Hill might help. "Gonna answer?"

"Yeah. Meet me back at Stark's?" she asked while looking up at him. The thousand year old stare was gone, replaced by the faked happiness that had been Clint’s emotions since New York. The sight made her want to scream, she had gotten so close. But all Clint did was simply nod and walk away and she let him. When he was out of hearing range, Natasha answered. "This better be good."

"Are you with Agent Barton?" Hill responded, sharply. Too sharply. Almost as if she was under orders to call Natasha. Feeling very vulnerable, Natasha tensed and focused on Clint's retreating form. This had to be about interrogating Clint... Or locking him up, forever. "Natasha! This is serious! Are you with Barton?"

"No. And before you ask, I won't tell you where he is," Natasha snarkily replied, fearing that S.H.I.E.L.D had actually already made the decision on arresting Clint or not. There was no way in hell she’d allow them to get a hold of him just to punish him. Hill's stressed sigh made the assassin pause. Could Hill really be calling for something other than debriefing Clint? Natasha’s eyes narrowed even as she continued. "Also, you should note that we both found the tracers in our phones, bags and weapons. All of which are removed and destroyed."

"Good," was Hill's answer back. Natasha raised an eyebrow in surprise. Did she really hear that right? Hill was pleased that Natasha had destroyed their trackers?

"Good?" she muttered before looking for Clint again. He was already gone from her sight. It relieved some of her stress. Until Hill spoke again.

"Yes. Barton's in trouble."

\----------

So, I think I am planning on doing daily updates until I catch up to what is being posted on FF.net. Which will be a bit cause FF.net is getting story eight with only three chapters left before it goes to nine. Hopefully it will all work out. Then again, with how long this is all taking it's good for me. There is one of the stories that I just keep working on, over and over and over. Like, I think I'm done and then like an hour later or whatever I'm like, I should totally add this! But, enough about future problems.

Darius is being... Well, Darius. We've been trying to potty train him but he just refuses to do it. My mother in law is planning on doing a three day training technique that she used with Clint but so far we haven't gotten the three day weekend to do it. Just this morning I got up with Darius early and after like half an hour after being down, I smelt something that could have been poop or a fart, so I asked Darius if he pooped. He said no. Ten minutes or so later, I asked again. And again, he said no. When hubby finally got downstairs, running a bit behind to get to work, Darius walked right up to him and went 'Daddy, I went poop.' Yeah... He did that... So, in the end I had to change him. Only for like ten minutes later that he did it again. This time I actually checked him cause I didn't want to sit down and then have to get up and change him. Baby Jason seems to love sleeping all day and his parents haven't seemed to want to keep him awake during the day so he could sleep through the night. Hubby and I have suggested it a few times but, they'll figure it out. Soon.

Anyways, that's it. Enjoy!


	3. Udaipur

"What? You can't be serious!" Tony Stark's obnoxious voice nearly screamed into Clint's ears as the archer got closer to the house. Everyone was outside on the porch, enjoying Bruce's cooking. But, the archer’s greyish blue eyes caught sight of something different. An added person. Blond hair. Tall. Muscular. It took a moment before Clint realized it must be Cap. "How could you have not heard of the Hunger Games? It's all over the place! What about Twilight? No? Harry Potter? Jeez, you really need a guide!"

"Leave him be, Tony. He doesn't have to enjoy the same things as you," Pepper declared. Steve nodded his thanks to her but Tony never backed down that easily. Bruce and Clint could see the upcoming argument. The scientist sighed deeply as he wondered if he should get involved. Meanwhile, Clint decided to skirt around the edges of the ‘party’ area, waiting for someone to notice him. In the meantime, he'd enjoy Tony being Tony.

"I'm not saying that he needs to like it! The issue is he hasn't heard of them! God, I never read Twilight but I know it's about a stupid average girl falling in love with a stupid handsome guy!" Tony cried, his gaze shifting from Pepper to Steve. Pepper rolled her eyes, looking to Steve before mouthing ‘sorry.’ Steve just gave her a small smile before sighing, wondering how best to deal with Tony.

"Uh, actually Bella is a human girl who falls for the vampire, Edward. But she also falls for an old friend who ends up being a werewolf," Bruce meekly mentioned. All eyes focused on him with mixed emotions of shock, amusement, and surprise. Bruce quickly went defensive. "I had a lot of free time!"

"O-Kay... That's besides the point. From now on, we are having team movie night to help Capsicle catch up!" Tony announced. Pepper huffed. Steve seemed to want to bash his head on the table. And Bruce began to look mildly amused.

"Does that mean we are watching the old classics like: Pinky, All that Heaven Allows, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, On the Beach-"

"What the hell? Since when are those classics, Bruce?" Tony snapped. "No, we're gonna watch Halloween, The Birds, Psycho, Cinderella, Friday the 13th, The Cabin in the Woods-"

"Isn’t that the one with the guy who looks kinda like Thor?" Bruce wondered. Tony settled a slight glare on the man "But really Tony, only horror?"

"I threw in Cinderella."

"There is a horror movie by the same name," Bruce pointed out. Steve chuckled, looking to see Tony’s reaction. The genius raised his hand, ready to point at Bruce harshly before stopping as he realized what Bruce was doing.

"Hardy, har har," Tony began but was again interrupted.

"I think each person should make a contribution to what movie will play. That way Steve doesn't get stuck following one person's preference," Pepper said. With that the conversation died down a bit. Bruce and Steve agreed with Pepper. But Tony’s fight never got started because Clint finally decided to join them. As he hit the bottom steps, the wood creaked. Everyone turned to look at him. He gave a sheepish smile and nodded a hello. "Did Natasha find you?"

"Yeah. She's dealing with a phone call. Should be here soon," Clint responded. Pepper nodded before waving him closer. Clint headed up the rest of the steps as Steve stood and walked up to greet Clint at edge of the steps. With a smile, the old man held out a hand. Clint looked up into the Captain's blue eyes and saw honesty and kindness but there was something else. Something off. But he felt no threat from the Captain, so the archer brushed it off before he grasped the awaiting hand and the two shook.

"Steve Rogers. Didn't get an official introduction before," Steve explained, his face twisting into a knowing smile. Clint smiled, covering his confusion at Steve’s sight but didn’t question it. This just might be how Steve did things. No one had ever really known what Steve was personally like. And technically, Steve had to have heard the archer’s name during Manhattan and Loki.

"Clint Barton," Clint replied as the shake finally ended. Nodding in greeting, Steve shifted to allow the archer room to get further onto the porch. As Clint got to the table, he noticed that nearly all the food was gone. His surprise wasn't hidden in time for Bruce's welcoming gaze. Focusing on the doctor, Clint saw the sheepishness settle over the once relaxed form. Deciding it was as good as any to liven up, Clint smirked at him. "Jeez doc, thought you cooked more so we wouldn't run out."

"Uh," Bruce called as Tony's laughter burst through. Now fully embarrassed, Bruce looked away from the archer. Clint flashed a glance at Steve and noticed he seemed rather red as well. Then his eyes hit Pepper. She was redder than either man. Raising an eyebrow, Clint waited. He knew Bruce and Steve would eat a lot. But Pepper was certainly a surprise. "We were really hungry and the food has been out for a while."

"No worries," Clint laughed, allowing everyone but Tony to relax. The billionaire hadn't been fazed by his accusation. Heck, he rather much enjoyed it. Only a minute more passed before Steve and Clint settled into some chairs around the table. Once down, Clint reached for a dog and began to load it up with as much toppings as possible. Which considering it was on Tony’s dime, there was a lot.

"Hell, guess we weren't the only hungry ones!" Tony declared as everyone watched Clint expertly drop more and more on his hot dog. Pepper sighed deeply. Of course Tony would do this. Bruce watched with an eyebrow raised but said nothing. He couldn’t really judge the archer. Steve just sat there and smirked, like he knew something the others didn’t. When it seemed like nothing else could be added, Clint still dropped some more items and then paused to look at his masterpiece. "Now, eat that without making a mess."

"Twenty bucks says I can," Clint countered, glancing up at the genius with a daring face. Steve snorted, grabbing his drink quickly to cover his face. Bruce gave the Captain an odd look but Steve pointedly did not match his gaze. Tony smirked as they both looked over the dog. It look impossible for one to even lift it without everything or at least one piece falling off. But Clint upped the stakes. "One drop of anything on the plate and you win. Nothing falls, I win."

"Deal. Go ahead. You are totally gonna fail," Tony mentioned as Pepper shook her head and got up to head back inside. Clint snorted, forgetting easily that this group did not know him. Very slowly and carefully, Clint picked up the dog. He handled it like a bomb about to go off. Showmanship, really. Clint had made bigger dog additions in his past and never made a mess. This dog would be a cake walk. And only a minute later proved that, when the dog was gone and no trace of it ever existing. Tony's jaw looked broken. Bruce seemed impressed. Steve had an unreadable expression on his face.

"Fay uf," Clint announced with a mouth still full of dog. None of even sprayed out. Tony's jaw set. No way. He wasn’t gonna lose.

"Double or nothing!" he snapped in awe and admiration. Clint swallowed and smiled before quickly working on loading up another dog. As he finished loading the dog, Clint wondered what made him originally not want to hang with Tony. It was fun messing with the genius. But this time, when he picked up the dog, a noise made him drop the whole thing. It wasn’t something he had heard over the past week and he had made sure to remember every type of noise going on around the area. "Ha! I win!"

"Shut up," Clint ordered as he felt like someone else was watching him. Something was wrong. His eyes flickered across the beach and the surrounding woods nearby but nothing looked out of place. At Clint's words, Steve tensed and began looking around as well. Bruce stiffened, shifting a bit in his seat as if ready to run away at the first sign of trouble, which really was a good idea in case Hulk came out. But Tony didn’t seem phased.

"You can't tell me to shut up in my own house!" the genius snapped. Clint then focused a glare on the immature man. That was enough to silence him. Tony was beginning to tell that something was up. He may not know what, but he wasn't one to question the awareness of others. Clint stood and focused on the woods behind Steve, who had been sitting across from him. The super soldier stood as well while Bruce seemed to cower in the man's shadow. Tony stayed completely still, unsure where he would be safe.

"What's going on?" Pepper questioned a second later when she reemerged from the house with some fresh drinks. Right away Steve and Clint waved for her to go inside while Tony jumped to his feet to push her back. Surprised, she dropped the drinks and the glasses shattered on the wood. No one but Pepper seemed fazed. She cried out in shock but let Tony to shove her back. The two then stood in the doorway. Noticing the guys were tense, Pepper smartly shut her mouth, tensely waiting.

"Should we suit up?" Tony whispered, feeling unnerved by the tense stand off going on. Steve, who had been trying to focus on something in the woods, deferred to Clint but no one seemed to notice. But the archer's grey-blue eyes were still manically shifting about. He couldn't find what had made the noise. Normally, by now, he'd relax after being unable to see anything, though right now he couldn't. The noise wasn't normal Miami noise. He could still feel like someone was watching him.

"I can't tell yet," Clint answered as he glared at the woods. He needed something. Anything to go off of. Even just a glint of sun off a sniper scope. But his eyes were failing him right now. And if his eyes weren't up to par, it could spell the end of him. But, he wasn’t alone anymore. He had the other Avengers. They could help watch over him, he hoped. He still wasn't sure if he could trust them just yet.

"Clint!" Natasha suddenly screamed from up the beach. Everyone turned their back on the woods to focused on her. She was running as fast as she could and, almost, looked petrified. Clint paused. What was she- "Udaipur!"

It took Clint less than a second to realize what Natasha meant so he dropped down under the table as something hit the wood where he had been standing. Bruce spun around as Steve leapt over the table, both putting themselves in the line of fire while also blocking the view of Clint from the woods. Pepper screamed in shock as Tony pushed her further into the house even as the genius watched as Clint slid under the table, pulling a gun from the waist band of his shorts.

"What the fuck?" Tony cried, looking to the table and then to the other men on the porch. Embedded in the wood was a tranquilizer dart. Not dangerous, per say, but surprising considering it had been aimed for Clint. "What is going on?"

"Get Clint out of there!" Natasha ordered as she came running up the rest of the beach. Her eyes quickly tracking the trajectory of the dart before she rushed toward the woods. Steve turned back and kneeled down to see Clint laying flat on the porch, his gun raised to defend if needed. Nodding an all clear, Steve helped Clint out but continued to use himself and Bruce as cover for the archer as they snuck into the house. Clint took a quick glance outside in time to see Natasha slip into the woods. He wanted so badly to just go and follow her. Help her chase down whoever shot at him. But by the sound of her voice, Clint knew it would be a very bad idea.

"So... Udaipur?" Tony questioned, not fully expecting an answer once they were all inside. And if the genius did get an answer, he was so going to ask about Budapest. Steve closed the door to the porch as Bruce walked deeper into the house. Pepper watched the scientist go and almost followed but hesitated when she saw he was turning a bit green. So instead, she moved to hold onto Tony. Steve turned and gave the billionaire a look that pretty much read: 'drop it.' But it was Tony. Clint focused all of his attention on the tree line so he had barely heard Tony. "Hello, little archer man. You with us? I want to know about Udaipur."

"Leave it alone, Stark," Steve commanded. Clint hummed at that and turned to face everyone that was left in the room. Seeing their slightly confused and worried faces, the archer mentally reviewed what had been happening. Sighing, he walked away from the door a bit more. Steve intentionally pushed himself between Clint and the glass, not knowing that the glass was bullet proof.

"Udaipur was the one mission I went on were I became the target," Clint began. Tony's eyes raised in shock. He hadn’t honestly expected Clint to tell him. Pepper gave a soft moan of displeasure. Steve shook his head. He knew what Clint and Natasha did for a living, not that he fully agreed with it. "Fury sent me with a different handler. Guy named James Holden, or something. It was rumored that Holden might be a snake, and Fury and Coulson knew I could handle myself."

"A snake?" Pepper questioned. Clint paused before nodding. He forgot that they might not know the term.

"A traitor. Someone using S.H.I.E.L.D as a cover up for something bigger. Double agents normally are spies working for someone else. Holden worked for another group but didn't steal info. He stole weapons, medicine and the like," Clint explained. Pepper nodded. "We went to Udaipur on a mission to catch Holden's boss, but at the time we didn't know this. First few days, doing recon was fine. No problems from the boss or Holden. Then I got the go ahead."

"Go ahead for the hit?" Tony inquired. Clint nodded.

"Well, so did they. And with Holden telling me where to run to, I kept getting pinned. It took me a good hour of cat and mouse, plus a bullet to the ribs, before I realized Holden was a snake. Too bad it was too late. Got caught and nearly killed. Tasha and Coulson had to bail me out," Clint briefly explained. As he finished, the door opened and Natasha waltzed in. Clint gave her an expectant look that turned depressed when she shook her head no. She also didn’t seem pleased.

"You're lucky that Natasha found you," Pepper remarked, remembering how she felt when Tony went missing. She felt so useless. Natasha glanced at the group before focusing on Clint. His innocent expression told her what she needed to know.

"Did you mention the torture?" Natasha muttered. Clint gave a harsh laugh. Steve’s lips set into a grim line as Pepper held tighter onto Tony. The genius looked a little pale. "Guess not. Holden's clearance was lower than Clint's so they tortured him for a good two days before we got there."

"Two days wasn't that bad considering my history," Clint laughed. No else laughed.

"That isn't something to joke about. That's horrible," Pepper gasped. Clint rolled his eyes and decided not to comment. Instead, he focused on Natasha. It was at this point that a now calmed Bruce reentered the room.

"What's going on?" the archer asked, knowing that Tasha knew the answer. Natasha looked away as everyone focused on her. When she didn't answer right away, Tony crossed his arms, mindful of where Pepper had latched herself onto.

"Yeah, spidey, what's going on? Who's trying to take out Katniss?" Tony growled. Clint spared the billionaire a glance. There was no way he’d respond to a female archer’s name. "What? Rather Robin Hood? Merida? Susan? Kimberly? Green Arrow?"

"Invisible woman?" Pepper mentioned after hearing one of the names. Tony rolled his eyes.

"Susan from Narnia," he clarified. "Any other issues?"

"Yes. First, never compare me to Green Arrow. Second, I'd rather just go by Clint, Barton or Hawkeye," Clint commented before they all look to Natasha again. The spy groaned. Normally Tony could hold off a conversation longer than that. Not that it wasn’t important to tell Clint what was going on, but Natasha would rather do it in private.

"Hill told me the Council has it in for you. They want to terminate you," she mentioned calmer then she thought possible. Clint paled as he realized what she really meant. Steve focused on the archer in shock. Bruce looked down to the floor. Pepper gasped and seemed like she might be about to cry. Tony just looked pissed.

"Does Fury not understand that he was possessed?" Tony demanded. Natasha faced him.

"Director Fury works under the Council. They are actually two separate entities," Natasha coolly responded. Tony tensed. "Fury actually wants to bring him in for questioning. He was going to wait until we all returned, but things changed."

"Well, don't the Council realize he was possessed? And why just him?"

"They don't care. As long as someone other then them gets blamed," Clint muttered before standing. Natasha walked over to him but before she made it to his side, he looked up with a face devoid of all emotion. "So, I'll go pack up."

"Clint," Natasha stared but the archer was already off. With a deep sigh, she went to follow only to have Steve grab her arm. In the amount of time it took for Natasha to glance at Steve and then back to where Clint had gone, the archer had already vanished from her sight. The dark threatening glare she gave Steve after did little to loosen his grip. Which, in all honesty, surprised her. Never, since being labeled Black Widow, has anyone ever stood up to her without some sort of protective barrier. "I need to go after him.”

"Let him go," Steve whispered, his eyes hiding something but Natasha didn’t care to try and figure it out. Bruce nodded his consent along with Tony. Pepper simply slunk off to the side. This was getting too dangerous for her. Best to just head out. "He's a big boy."

"Let me go, or you will regret it," Natasha hissed, her green eyes flickering toward where Clint was last seen. Steve shook his head, his face unreadable.

"Natasha, let him think this over. How would you feel if you just found out you'd been fired," Bruce softly mentioned. Natasha stared at the scientist in shock. Then her eyes focused on everyone else and she clearly saw that they may have mistook her words. Without a thought to Steve's superior strength, Natasha yanked her arm from his grasp. Not wanting to hurt her, Steve released her but then shifted to step in front of her path. Natasha looked even angrier if at all possible.

"Morons! The Council wants to kill Clint!" she cried at them, not caring how blunt she sounded. Surprised by her new admission, the others looked to the way that the archer had vanished. Without wasting another second, Natasha was rushing toward the room Clint had claimed as his own. Unconsciously, she knew that Tony, Steve and Bruce were right behind her.

The group busted into the room, praying that they'd see Clint just chilling on the bed. But the sight that greeted them was horrible. The far window was utterly shattered. Glass littered the floor. The mattress was flipped on it's side and the sheets strewn every which way. Anything that wasn't too heavy to move was now tossed far from it's original position. And the worst part... Clint was no where to be found.

\----------

So.... Uh.... Notes.... I haven't figured out how to do those... ugh... As you can tell, my note for the first chapter is now gone... There was no note on the second chapter... And I skipped a day of posting. Sorry. I swear, I am trying to work on this. Yeah... Anyways...

Again, this story is a repost of a story on Fanfiction.net with the same name. There have been edits in-between to help match with future stories. If you want to ruin this for yourself, feel free to read ahead, but I don't recommend it. But, that's about it. I'm not gonna post about my kid today. I'll try and leave that for Friday posts, unless he does something funny. And today, he's with grandparents, so, no funny story. So, that's it. Until tomorrow.


	4. The Beginning

"How could we not have heard this?" Tony whispered in despair. Natasha slowly crept into the room. She couldn't believe it. After just finding out about him being in danger, Clint was gone. Steve entered after her and placed a hand on her shoulder. When she looked to face him, she saw sympathy and it infuriated her. No one was supposed to give Black Widow sympathy. Black Widow didn't feel emotion. Black Widow didn't feel loss. Black Widow can't get compromised. Too bad she already was.

"This is your fault," Natasha spat at the Captain, in an effort to hide her feelings. Too bad this did the complete opposite of what she wanted. Steve flinched but didn't deny that it was his fault. Natasha jerked her shoulder away from his hand. Her eyes glaring daggers into the leader of the Avengers. "If you just let me follow him."

"I'm sorry, Natasha. I had no idea," Steve tried explaining. Natasha scoffed, making Tony flinch. She sounded so evil. Deciding it was best to not get involved, Tony pulled up a holographic tablet and started searching for something as he backed further away from the room. Bruce, on the other hand, slipped deeper inside. He used this as a chance to look around, but he still paid attention to the conversation that was happening in the doorway.

"That's right. You had no idea. But I did, and you stopped me. And now Clint may be dying. Do you really think a 'sorry' could fix this?" Natasha snapped before swiftly turning and walking deeper into the room herself. Steve looked crest-fallen. As evilly as she stated it, Natasha was right. He screwed up real bad. Bruce focused on Steve for a moment before facing Natasha.

"Clint is depending on us. Do you really want to lay blame or find him?" Bruce questioned. Natasha sighed and looked about the room. Steve frowned but also focused on searching for clues. Tony was busy outside in the hall trying to pull up video feeds of what happened. After a minute of searching, Steve looked back up at Natasha.

"I am truly sorry for what happened. I mistook your words and now may have gotten Clint in serious danger," Steve apologized. Natasha groaned and kicked a large chunk of wood across the room. Bruce and Steve winced as it crashed into the one non broken lamp and shattered it. Natasha then faced Steve.

"No. I should have realized that you would have mistook the words. Hell, I nearly mistook them when Hill told them to me," Natasha mentioned. Steve smiled just a small amount as he went back to searching. He was glad that Natasha had kind of forgiven him.

"Hill told you?" Bruce asked. Natasha nodded but didn't add anything else to it before looking about the room. Bruce frowned but said nothing as he walked about the room. That was when it hit him. The whole room was trashed, but something was missing. "Is it just me, or is there a lack of blood?"

"What do you mean?" Steve inquired as he looked to the scientist. Bruce eyed the Captain for a second before pointing around.

"Ton of broken glass. White bed sheets. Couple of broken arrow shafts and heads. It's like a war zone. But in all this there is no blood from victim or assailant," Bruce pointed out. Natasha and Steve focused on that idea for a moment. The doc had a point. Clint would have put up a huge fight and had to have landed at least one blow. Or his attacker had to have injured him to get him to leave. "This whole thing looks staged."

"Because it is. Clint never made it into the room," Tony called from the doorway. Bruce, Steve and Natasha quickly moved to join the billionaire. Not waiting for one of them to question him, Tony lifted the holographic tablet before him. "Was looking at the feeds. Clint hits the in between of these cameras when something grabs him. You see this blurry hand, then Clint vanishes."

"Magic?" Steve mentioned. Tony frowned. Bruce shook his head no. Natasha sighed deeply. "I mean, it could be Loki again."

"No. Thor would have told us by now," Natasha claimed. Tony scoffed.

"Yeah. Like the big guy really came to us first before taking Loki out of a moving jet," Tony mocked. Natasha gritted her teeth. Steve groaned and moved a few steps away. Bruce let out a deep breath. "Thor only came to us after the fact. And even then tried to take over the whole operation!"

"Sounds familiar," Steve softly remarked. Tony just about heard it and spun on the super soldier. But before he could speak, Steve held up his hand. "You heard me. Besides, we should really stop fighting. Barton is in life threatening danger."

"We were fighting about if Loki took him," Tony growled, pissed that he wasn't able to take a good verbal jab at the Captain. "I still say no."

"You never said no," Steve said. Tony rolled his eyes. "Sides, we shouldn't rule him out until Thor comes and tells us for certain that Loki was not involved."

"I believe we should start with Fury," Bruce suddenly commented. Tony, Steve and Natasha focused on him. They all mostly seemed confused by his suggestion. Bruce frowned and reached for his glasses. Taking them off, he began cleaning the lenses with his shirt. "Well, the Council would have to get their men from him, and he would be ordering men to go after Clint. So, it's only right that we follow our biggest lead. The Director of S.H.I.E.L.D."

\----------

Clint woke to the major of all headaches. Almost felt like someone was doing construction with a jackhammer to his skull. And the worst part, it wasn't just his head that was bothering him. Everything was sore in some way or another. It did focus mainly on his upper body in seemingly random areas like his wrists, upper arms, chest and stomach, but still, it all hurt. Groaning, he forced his left hand to come up and press against his aching head. When that simple motion left him feeling drained, Clint knew he'd been drugged. Now he just needed to read the symptoms better to figure out what drug. Assessing his predicament some more, the archer noted he never faced a drug with this many symptoms. It had to be new.

"Great," Clint moaned as he removed his hand. Slowly, he decided it was a great idea to open his greyish blue eyes. Too bad he was horribly wrong. For once, Clint was imprisoned in a very brightly lit white room. And the sight burned his poor eyes, which had been to long behind his lids. With a pained groan, Clint snapped his eyes closed and turned away. He really didn't want to try that again.

"Ah, so you're awake," called a voice as a door creaked open and then close. Clint cracked his eyes open, slower than before to get used to the light, and glanced in the general direction of the voice. There, in the bright fluorescent light, stood a tall thin man with short cropped black hair and deep emerald green eyes. He smiled at the archer when he noticed Clint staring at him. Clint frowned. The man seemed familiar somehow. But Clint couldn't place how. "That's good. We were worried that the drug would keep you down and out longer. Now that you are awake, we would like to ask you some questions."

"We?" Clint growled as his eyes got used to the lights he opened them a bit more. The man smirked at Clint. Almost like the archer should know the answer to the question but because he didn't, it was amusing. Clint just waited. There were too many people that could be after him. He already knew of the Council, Fury, and about a hundred different mobs from around the world. So a name was really needed. Hell, it could just be an agent that was upset at what he had done on the Helicarrier.

"Your name is Clinton Francis Barton, correct?" the man questioned instead. Clint rolled his eyes. Only the Council ever used his full name. Fury called him Clint Francis Barton. So that narrowed it down really fast. Clint sighed deeply.

"Didn't we already play this game? I thought you decided to terminate me?" Clint countered, just as confirmation that this guy actually did work for the Council. The man laughed, seeming unconcerned that Clint was asking questions rather than answering. Guess the beatings would come later.

"Oh, you'll die. After we get some answers," he said. Clint frowned. "You work under the alias of Hawkeye, correct?"

"After I answer questions? For what?" Clint inquired. "You can't blame me for what Loki made me do! I had no control!"

"You are trained to fight mind control. You did nothing to stop him. Hell, it looked like you practically handed yourself to him. It's your fault he got there. Your fault he got Selvig. Your fault he got the Tesseract. Your fault Fury got shot. Your fault the base got destroyed and all those people died. Your fault the Helicarrier got attacked! Your fault Manhattan happened!"

\----------

So.... I hate the built in notes here.... Still can't figure it out. And, still can't figure out how to remember how to post daily... ARGH! Sorry. I'm working on it. I swear. Again, updates on my life will be Friday. See you next time!


	5. Tracking

"So, let me get this straight... We are about to go into S.H.I.E.L.D HQ and accuse their boss of taking our friend, who is in fact on their pay roll?" Tony questioned as they began to start making plans to leave Miami and go see Fury. Their plan had been to have Tony don the Iron Man suit and have the others board a Quinjet that Tony had previously taken and fly to the Helicarrier. Once on the carrier, Tony would use the suit to clear a path straight to Fury. Steve and Bruce would hold the Director down while Natasha would interrogate him. Tony, of course, would defend the Quinjet until they were done.

But now, as the genius thought about it, Tony began to see they were being stupidly insane. And that was odd considering it was him being the one thinking it. Natasha, Steve and Bruce froze, staring at Tony as though he either grew a second head or suddenly changed into Loki. They hadn't even left Clint's room when they went to make plans for fear of bringing Pepper in on the action. But now, staring at the billionaire, processing his words, the group began to see sense. Tony continued on. "I don't mean to make it sound like I don't care for him, but going after Fury may actually be crazier than we first thought."

"What the hell was I thinking?" Natasha growled at herself before kicking a piece of trash in anger. Steve raised an eyebrow at the display of emotion again but no one else made any other action toward it. No one dared tried. With Clint missing, Natasha was seeming to fall apart at the seams. It was not only dangerous to watch but it was now becoming dangerous to be around her. "I know better than this! I was trained better then this!"

"Natasha, we all aren't thinking clearly," Steve muttered. Natasha ignored him as she went off deeper into the room. The three heard a loud crash and a guttural scream. No one moved to investigate.

"Well, if that lead is gone, then what are we going to do?" Bruce asked when he figured Natasha was done with her emotional rant. He only hoped that Tony had a new suggestion or Natasha was likely to kill him. And at this point, he didn't think Steve or he could stop her.

"Actually. I was thinking we could-" Tony began when suddenly Natasha returned to the room. She looked slightly crazed but more in control then seconds before.

"Clint has a tracker!"

"What?" Steve, Bruce and Tony called.

"Coulson made us get one. We'd activate it after two days of lack of contact during a mission. And it would only get turned on for short blips so no one could figure it out. Only Coulson, Clint and I have the radio frequency that the tracker was kept on!" Natasha declared with almost such joy that she was nearly smiling at the guys. The three traded a glance. They were unsure if they wanted to trust her judgment right now.

"Uh, that's great and all. But don't the Council know about this thing?" Tony mentioned. Natasha shook her head. Tony frowned. He almost wanted to ask if Fury knew about it but figured that if Coulson was the one who made Clint and Natasha get it, Fury must know. "Okay. That solves that problem."

"Can it be activated before the two days?" Steve questioned in his confusion of technology. Tony rolled his eyes. Bruce smiled at Steve's innocence. Natasha nodded.

"Of course. Coulson made a control for it. We each have a certain code that we enter and the tracker starts with these blips. Just turning on for a few seconds to send some info and then shutting off. After about ten blips or so, we'll have a location. Unless they are jamming the frequencies. Then, depending on how good the tech is, the blips could be eleven or up to over a hundred. Sometimes more."

"What was the longest attempt?" Steve muttered. Natasha sobered and looked away.

"I think Coulson said around seven days. He had the exact number of blips, but I forget what he said. Clint and I were in Budapest." With that said, Natasha left the room.

"I really have got to learn about Budapest," Tony whined. Bruce smirked as Tony left the room after the spy. He looked to the super soldier. Steve focused on the scientist with a confused look.

"You know. It'd be fun to learn that Budapest was just a vacation," Bruce joked. Steve laughed lightly as the two then took off after their comrades.

"So, Clint is gone?" Pepper parroted once again as she stared at Tony in shock. She had stopped the four when she saw them round the corner. They had been intent on leaving without saying a word to the woman but when she questioned Tony, he just opened up. Tony nodded before telling her everything they knew. Afterwards, Pepper looked each of them over. "Clint was taken. In a house full of super... Heroes? People? What do I even call you?"

"I'd go for heroes," Tony said.

"Freak, for me," Bruce muttered. Steve frowned. Bruce noticed but before he could speak, Natasha said something.

"I'm an assassin and a spy, not a hero," Natasha snapped at Tony. "And Clint is an assassin and sniper."

"We're the Avengers now," Tony fought back. Natasha snarled at the name. She remembered filling out the file for Coulson. Clint had done it mostly as a joke and so Natasha had felt the same way. There was no way that plan would ever come to fruition. And then Iron Man happened. Then Thor. Then Steve. And the plan was made.

"Avengers. Okay. House full of Avengers. Great. Can't even protect themselves," Pepper distantly mumbled. Not that any of them really heard her. They were now too busy fighting themselves. Steve mentioned something to Bruce but only the scientist caught it and it made him sigh deeply.

"Clint and I still work for S.H.I.E.L.D! We are not heroes!" Natasha snarled at Tony. He stepped toward her, almost daring her to attack.

"Come on Steve. You saw me during the fight. I was big and green and hardly in control," Bruce argued. Steve's frown deepened.

"You saved Tony's life!" Steve pointed out. Bruce rolled his eyes. His thoughts clearly showing how much he enjoyed that statement.

"Not heroes? What do you call Manhattan then? That was pretty damned heroic?" Tony shouted at Natasha. Natasha scoffed. She so wanted to just punch Tony in the face.

"After nearly breaking his back!" Bruce cried. "I saw the footage!"

"Doing our jobs!" Natasha growled. Tony make a choking laugh sound.

"He was falling too fast for Thor to go catch him! Hulk knew what he was doing!" Steve defended. Bruce laughed.

"Your jobs? So a spy and sniper now go after aliens trying to take over the world?" Tony attacked.

"Hu... The other guy could have crushed Tony just as easily as crushing an egg if he squeezed too hard when he caught him!" Steve winced as he imaged what Bruce was describing.

"We were the few unharmed agents able to fight, so we did. Fury would have ordered us too sooner or later anyways." Tony outright laughed at this.

"But he didn't. And Hulk's cry helped wake Tony back up! It's thanks to him that we have him still here!"

"Sure. Just like Fury sent us back up that wasn't a freaking nuke!" Natasha raised her arm as though she was going to punch Tony. Someone cleared their throat and she paused but didn't look just yet.

"Um, guys. How is this helping Clint?" Pepper suddenly cut in. The four stopped fighting and looked to the woman in surprise. She stood in a hallway to their right, her eyes red rimmed but curious. Tony was first to break eye contact with the CEO of his company. Natasha and Steve were next, the soldier hiding an embarrassing blush forming on his cheeks. Bruce was last with only a thankful nod being sent her way. "I guess you guys should get going?"

"Yeah," Tony whispered, pausing as he looked back at Natasha with a sheepish look. She barely looked at him. With a worried sigh, Tony looked back to Pepper. "You should head to Malibu ASAP. Call Rhodey and let him know you are there. I want him with you at all times."

"I will," Pepper promised. Tony smirked in a way that was reserved for only her. Bruce, Steve, Natasha and Tony began to file out of the room. Pepper watched as they headed for the hallway leading to the launch bay where the Quinjet and an Iron Man suit were currently stored. "Tony!"

The four paused to look back at her.

"Don't come back without him." They all smiled at her. No one knew just how close they all had become to each other. But Pepper knew. They were a family. The Avengers, family.  
\----------

Blip.

Blip.

Blip.

Blip.

"OH MY GOD! This is killing me!" Tony screamed suddenly. He jumped to his feet as he grabbed his head. Pacing the room (at Stark Tower), his hands began lacing his fingers into his hair in sheer agony. Natasha smirked as she reached her hand out toward Bruce. Bruce sighed and dug into his pocket. Pulling out a wad of cash he quickly and quietly counted it before placing it in the former Russian's outstretched hand with frown. Her hand then shifted. Steve groaned before he also took out a wad of cash and dropped it in her hand. Tony barely noticed.

Blip.

"Ah!" Tony cried. Bruce chuckled lightly before he could stop himself. Steve snickered behind a raised hand and Natasha's smirk grew. Tony whipped around to glare at his three companions. "Can't this thing go any faster?"

"Tony, we just turned it on, like two hours ago," Steve mentioned as another blip was heard in the background. Tony growled at the machine. He was beginning to look like a caged animal or something. "This could take a while."

"Like days," Natasha offhandedly commented, saying it more to bother Tony then to upset anyone. Bruce and Steve knew what she was doing and didn't respond. Tony's groan of disdain was well worth the knowledge of knowing they may not be able to help their friend for a long time.

"JARVIS would have had a location by now," Tony pouted as another blip sounded. The billionaire glared at the machine in utter contempt. Bruce smirked. He almost felt like Tony was putting on a drama show for them. "I feel like it's doing that to torture me."

"Why don't you go fix your suit or something and we'll call you with a location?" Natasha calmly suggested. Tony turned and looked at her. The machine bliped again. Tony snarled. Steve couldn't hold back his chuckle of amusement.

"Or, have JARVIS trace the blips. See who's faster at a location," Bruce softly muttered. Tony's face brightened. Suddenly he couldn't be out of there fast enough. The remaining three could barely contain their laughter at the billionaire as another blip drowned out Tony's cry of thanks. This time Bruce groaned.

"I can mute that," Natasha smartly stated. Bruce and Steve smiled.

"Please do," they called.

\----------

Another chapter! Happy Halloween for those that celebrate it. Couldn't do it myself this year due to errands and then the rain/wind in the area. But, our outfits will not be unused. On Friday, I am going to be going to Rhode Island Comic Con in order to sell my book. If anyone is in the area, come check it out. But, because of such, don't be surprised if I am late. The con is three days so, we'll see how it goes! Wish me luck!


	6. Failed

Fury frowned as he stared at his computer monitor. He couldn't be seeing that, could he? Four years ago, when Phil Coulson came to him with a radical idea of a tracking device for his agents, Fury didn't believe it could work. But time and time again, Coulson proved his old friend wrong. Fury was just thankful that he thought ahead and made sure to have himself be included in their little loop. Now though, Fury was staring at one active device that he really hated to see at the moment. With a deep groan, Fury turned on his comm.

"Agent Hill?" he called out as calmly as he could. There was a few seconds pause in which the Director wondered if she was going to respond. After what happened earlier, he wouldn't be surprised if she didn't. He hadn’t taken the Council’s new well and after calling Natasha, Hill had spent a good long while tasking agents for different missions that Fury typically did.

"Sir?" Hill's voice came back. Fury closed his eyes and placed a hand on the bridge of his nose. 

"Call Agent Romanoff and get me a status report on Agent Barton," he ordered. Even without her speaking, Fury could feel her hesitation. It had only been less then a few hours since she had last spoken to the spy. How could that much have changed? Especially considering how well trained the duo were and the likely hood that they were with at least one other Avenger. "Now, Agent."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

\----------

Blip.

Ring, ring. Ring, ring.

Blip.

Ring, ring. Ring, ring.

"WHO THE FUCK IS RINGING?" Tony shouted. He had come back only a few minutes ago to join the others for food. JARVIS had been ‘nice’ enough to warn them of his return, so Natasha had turned back on the sound just before he came back. At first, Tony tried to act like it didn't bother him. But the twitch in his right eye after a minute of beeping proved otherwise. And now the ringing phone was just too much. "GOD DAMN! JUST FUCKING ANSWER IT!"

"Romanoff?" Natasha muttered seconds later with a smirk. She hadn't even looked at her caller ID, a mistake she would later regret.

"Natasha?" came the unforgettable sound of Maria Hill's voice. Natasha's amusement immediately vanished. Bruce and Steve flashed her concerned and curious glances. She waved them off before standing and walking out of the room. "Natasha, is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be? You gave me enough warning," Natasha skirted. Hill hissed. Their earlier talk still on each of their mind. It had not gone well after Hill mentioned that Clint was in danger.

"Where is Barton? Can I speak to him?" Hill questioned. Natasha glanced back at the room she just left. Bruce was still sitting in his seat watching her. Steve was leaning forward, eyes switching between her and the tracking sensor. Tony was standing near the doorway, a condescending smirk on his face. She paused, as though asking someone off the phone a question and waiting for a response.

"I asked. He said fuck no," Natasha replied. Bruce coughed. Steve's eyes widened, covering his small smirk. Tony forced himself to cover his hysterical laughter. Natasha was just thankful that Clint and Hill's relationship tended to be so poor otherwise this might not work. Hill sighed.

"Okay. Thanks for the update," Hill muttered. Natasha nodded. Not wanting to slip up, or dredge up the fight, Natasha pulled the phone away from her ear. Without saying good-bye, the spy hung up. Tony then busted out laughing. Natasha focused on him. Bruce was in the background shaking his head.

"Would he really have said that?" Steve asked, his eyes still wide. Natasha gave him a light smile as she looked to the super soldier. It was funny to her now. And it made her want to join in Tony's laughter. But she held herself to the smile.

"I forget that you don't know us well."

\----------

"I think Agent Barton is missing, sir," Hill reported, a slight bit of worry leaking into her tone. Fury cracked an eyebrow at this. He knew that Hill had good judgment calls like this, but he needed proof. Especially considering who she was talking about. But after this year, Fury shouldn't be too surprised that one of his best agents may have been taken down. And certainly not surprised it would be the agent that got his mind fucking raped by a ‘god.’

"On what basis do you believe this?" Fury muttered as he sat back in his chair. Hill focused on his good eye for a brief second. He could tell she was checking to see if he was really asking for proof or not. Sometimes, he asked for proof just for the fun of it. Other times, he wouldn't act unless their was valid proof. But right now, he just wanted proof so he could actually have the hope that Hill was wrong.

"Agent Romanoff sounded strange during our conversation. There was no loud argument when I asked to speak to Agent Barton. Hell, I couldn’t even hear his voice, and we know how loud he can be. Besides the conversation ended much too quickly. Like Agent Romanoff was thinking about something else," Hill stated. Fury nodded. All valid points that wouldn't work as proof for anyone but Romanoff and Barton. Fury's eye glanced back at his computer. The tracker was almost done. Just a few more blips and they'd know. Fury blinked.

"Shit!" he cursed and jumped from his chair. Hill's eyes widen but otherwise made no reaction to the change in her superior. "How the hell could they have found it?"

Fury cursed again before slamming his fists on his desk and storming around the furniture. Hill silently watched as he walked out the door and headed off down the hall. He was still loudly cursing as she turned back to his computer. Slowly she moved forward and looked at the screen.

Trace Lost.

\----------

And here is the next chapter. May not be able to post another one till Monday or Tuesday as I will be busy with RI Comic Con as stated before.

Darius is doing good. Been a bit annoying the past few days but I think it might be because my hubby and I have like no patience for his normal antics. I don't think he really realized that he missed out on Trick or Treating due to the rain, so... At least we ca use his costume for the con. I got most of our stuff packed and ready to go, including his costumes. But, hubby and I kinda don't want him staying all weekend. We know we can't skip having him go tonight but hopefully father-in-law can get Darius on Saturday. We'll see. Baby Jason is doing good. Don't really like the pediatrician that his parents have, and neither are they. The person keeps suggesting things that other pediatricians have said not to do. It worry some that this person does this as there are likely a lot of first time parents with no one around who recently had a child. I doubt that anything is truly harmful that is suggested but... A lot of it just worries me and makes no sense for Jason's current age.

But that's life. Until next time!


	7. And So It Begins

It had only been four hours since he had been kidnapped. Or at least that’s what his watch claimed as it went off with an alarm that told Clint he was supposed to get dinner ready for the team. Though with the big lunch they had, Clint honestly wouldn’t have been surprised it they weren’t hungry. But, anyways, why his watch hadn't taken before, Clint couldn't fathom, but when the alarm went off, the agent from earlier stormed into the room so fast it almost made the archer laugh. The punch to his face and gut weren't so nice. But they were to keep him compliant as the man undid some of the ropes (an addition added on after hour one when he tried to escape) to get at the watch. When he redid the ropes, the man did them differently. They bit into Clint's wrists and cut off some circulation to his fingers and hands. While one might think that was bad, Clint could use that. Numb hands and fingers meant he could dislocate the bones without feeling it and slip out.

"Hey, that hurts," Clint muttered as if it mattered. The man smirked. His left hand came up and patted Clint's right cheek. Clint snarled but didn't move away. He had to keep the act up. Had to see what the man was going to do next.

"I'm glad it does. Glad it does," he told the archer before turning to leave. Clint sighed, making the man pause. So far the pain on his wrists and the punches to his gut and face were the only hits he had taken since arriving. It was strange. The man had yelled at him for at least a good hour or so when Clint first woke. Yelling about being under Loki's control. About much of his disobedience since working with S.H.I.E.L.D. But there hadn’t been much else. Hour two was the ‘physical’ violence followed by hour three and four with him sitting there doing nothing.

"So, we gonna get to anything more than this?" Clint asked. The man didn't respond. He just left with the watch still beeping it's crazy little alarm. As the door closed, Clint just about heard the crunch of it being smashed under a boot followed by the dying beep of the electronics. Clint smirked. He honestly didn’t care about that watch, but it was kinda funny to see that it had bothered the other agent.

The archer waited what felt to be five minutes, but was probably only two minutes before he began shifting his wrists around. It didn’t take long until they started bleeding, the red liquid coated the rope and making the knots slippery. Clint had to smile. This agent really wasn’t all that good at his job. Either that or wasn’t normally doing interrogations. Certainly not having done any torture before. Or maybe even having it done on him. Maybe the guy was a patsy for the Council. His information was too factual to be anything other than a senior agent or someone the Council had given information too. But, this certainly wasn’t a senior agent, they weren’t this bad.

"Just a little more," Clint whispered to himself as he felt the knot slide almost out of place. His hands slowly began getting feeling back but his fingers were still out thanks to lack of blood flow to the area. He actually became so engrossed in the rope and his hands that he didn't hear the door to his cell open. Nor did he hear the quick strides across the room. What he did hear and feel was the crack of his jaw as a right jab went through it. "AH! Shit!"

"Fucker!" the man snapped before a left hook sent Clint and his chair to the ground. Clint laughed hysterically as the man growled deeply. Taking one step forward, the man placed his foot on one of the chair's legs and pushed down. Clint was pleasantly surprised (but hide it well) as the chair lifted itself back into place. He always wanted to see someone do that before. Always looked kinda cool. "You're making me rush here. Just like before."

"What?" Clint asked, confused. The man said nothing. Just punched Clint in the ribs. The archer gasped as he heard a crack. At least one rib had to have fractured. Okay, maybe the guy had just been taking it easy before. The man then grabbed Clint's short hair and pulled the archer as far forward as he could before quickly pulling back and then forward again into his knee. Clint grunted as his nose cracked and blood spurted down the other agent's leg. "Jesus! You gonna fucking ask me something? Or tell me something I did wrong?"

"You were born," the man snarled. Clint's blood froze. He had heard that line before. So long ago. He thought he had blocked those memories. But now they were starting to come back at him full force. Clint squeezed his eyes closed. He needed to put the walls back up. Being so focused on that, the S.H.I.E.L.D agent didn't notice his tormentor leave and come back with a rolling metal table. He did notice the sharp slice cutting across his chest only seconds later though.

Hissing, Clint's greyish blue eyes snapped open. The man stood before him with a bloody knife in his hand. Clint focused on the knife. By doing that, he missed the smile cross the man's face. Sighing, the archer looked past and spotted the table. It was filled with fun little toys he had seen in other torture times in his past. This wasn't going to be good. But then he did ask for it. Clint glanced back into greenish blue eyes.

"Let's go."

\----------

Clint wasn't sure how much time passed since he blacked out. The torture was pretty intensive. Clint was rather shocked at the man's working knowledge of the subject, especially considering the guy hadn’t done much before. But, hell, the agent had even made the archer scream once or twice. Clint prided himself on not screaming during torture sessions. Thinking back on it a bit more, Clint had to note that somehow this guy knew all of his worst fears involved with torture, outside of eye injury or finger removal. So it was now, in the dark confines of unconsciousness, that he began to worry if this other agent would actually be able to break him. And not just breaking him as in body parts. Everyone did that. That was too easy and rather overdone. But Clint worried about his mental stability. Could he handle days of this? Or weeks?

SPLASH!

Clint jerked, sputtering, as cold water drained off his face and head. Greyish blue eyes looked up and glared hotly at the tall man before him. The man snorted as he dropped the metal bucket to the ground. It's job was over. Now onto the next item of business. Clint waited to see what would happen. Which form of torture would come next? Water boarding? Roman cutting? Chinese whipping? What did come next, he didn't expect.

"What was the name of the first man you killed?" the agent asked. Clint furrowed his brows. They were finally going to questions now? He thought it was going to be torture till death. The man paused. "Oh, I mean, first person you killed."

Clint's eyes narrowed. The first person (people) to actually die by his arrow was a Senator named Peter Dinkle, and his daughter. He was working on fixing the area that his ‘owners’ basically lived in. While Clint wasn’t effected by the man, he always wanted to erase the girl from his red ledger just as badly as Natasha wanted to clean hers.

"Edith Josephine Barton."

Clint snarled at the indication that he would have killed his own mother. She had died in a car crash when he was six years old when his father drove drunk right into a tree. He and his older brother, Barney, were forced to spend four years in all boys home, run by a child molester. They would then escape to Carson's Carnival of Traveling Wonders. Barney, who was three and a half years older then Clint, would leave Carson's first in order to apparently join the army (but not before nearly killing Clint). Clint left after six and a half blissfully ‘ignorant’ years. Three years after that, S.H.I.E.L.D/Coulson found Clint in Vienna. A bullet in his left leg and a threat of going to jail hanging over him, the archer joined the mysterious group and the rest became history.

"I didn't kill her," Clint snarled. The man tsked. Turning around, he grabbed something and before Clint could process what was happening, the man slammed a sharp object into the archer’s left shoulder. Clint grunted, thankful that the pain wasn't in his drawing arm (though Clint could use either side). If the man had chosen the other shoulder, the archer may have been out of commission (if he ever got out of this situation).

"Sure you didn't. Just like you didn't kill Phillip James Coulson," the man said with a knowing smirk. Clint jerked slightly at the name. It was only around a week after Manhattan and all the archer had heard from anyone was that it wasn’t his fault. "It was your plan. You were the leader."

"I never... Coulson wasn't..." Clint stammered, actually trying to defend himself a little. But he knew. The agent was right. It was his fault that Coulson was dead.

"They only went out cause you pissed your father off. You made him leave that night. You made him get drunk. You made him drive home. And your mother was there the whole time," the man darkly pointed out. Clint snarled. Barney had once or twice told him that their father had left that night to get drunk just cause it had been Clint’s birthday and their mother had saved up some money to buy a cake. There was also maybe mention of money from a friend. The old man used all the money on his beer at the ‘celebration’ restaurant and they had begun to return with no cake when he just lost control. "Just like your plans! You knew Coulson would be on the Helicarrier! You've worked with him how many years? Loki was just ripe for the picking."

"NO!"

\----------

I missed this for a while. But, for a very good reason. As those who have read my stories on FF.net and the author notes there, yesterday was the one year... I feel like this is the wrong word for this but 'Anniversary' of my five year old son's passing. We still have yet to get an answer as to what happened but we hope that will change soon.

In the meantime, Darius is doing well. Getting better about listening, unless you tell him to be quiet. Had a few issues but nothing too bad. Currently he is staying at the grandparents house for the weekend. Hoping he enjoys it and that hubby and I have the time to right ourselves after this tough weekend. Baby Jason is doing good. Got one tooth in and working on his second. Cranky a whole lot because of it but again, with so many parents around, he usually gets the right attention at the proper times.

I swear I will get back to once a day posting. Look for a new chapter tomorrow. I swear!


	8. Torture Continued

"What it's like knowing that you killed many of the greatest warriors that S.H.I.E.L.D had to offer?" the man snarled darkly as he took a blade from Clint's left temple down his cheek and stopping just near his chin. Blood began to slowly trickle off the new injury. Clint already had a matching one on his chest, collarbone and right arm. Soon, all he'd need was some matching injuries on his legs. The man was quick to move down there. Clint shifted his legs away making the man punch him in the balls. The archer gasped as he tried not to squeal. As the pain passed, he spoke.

"Agents," Clint gasped out through the pain. The wound was now being pressed against a salted, wet towel. He hadn't seen the other man grab it but he had pressed the same towel to other wounds. The salt would stop infection and help clot the blood and the water cleaned the area. Kinda actually nice to have someone do that while hurting him but Clint knew it was just to keep him alive longer. Why, he didn't know yet. Especially considering the man had already stated the Council wanted him dead.

His greyish blue eyes flashed as they meet with emerald green ones. The man was now curious. He wanted to understand Clint's pain crazed logic. But Clint didn't expand on his correction. Pissed, the other agent shoved his thumb into Clint's shoulder wound. It aggravated the tissue and Clint swore he almost felt the man's nails scrap against bone.

"Shit!" he cussed as the thumb was withdrawn. The man snarled. His green eyes flashing in the light. Clint closed his eyes as he tried to re-center his mind. The pain was making it hard to focus.

"What did you say?" Clint still refused to answer. Growling now, the other agent spun back to the table behind him. He dropped the bloody scalpel he had been using before and picked up some sort of clear vial. Popping the top, he paused. "I'll ask again. What did you say?"

"Fuck you," Clint snarled. The vial was tossed onto his stomach and slightly splashed his legs. For a brief few seconds, Clint felt nothing and almost laughed. But then the sizzling and burning started. Clint's eyes opened as large as a dinner plate as he tried not to scream. Too bad that didn't stop him. "FUCKING HELL!"

The man laughed as he replaced the top on the empty vial. Clint kept on cussing as loud as he could to stop from screaming in pure agony. It was like acid but it ate away faster than the times he’d ever been through it before. Clint looked down at his wounds quickly and noticed that the liquid hadn't touched his clothes. His once white tank was now completely red. Jesus, this was a thing of his worst nightmare! An acid that destroyed everything but clothing.

Then, as suddenly as it started, the man splashed Clint with something new. The pain from his stomach and legs left but every open wound was burning as though on fire. Clint grimaced. The amount of pain here was less. Didn't mean it didn't hurt like a 'som-bitch', but it was less then before. The archer could only pray it didn’t cause internal damage like another nightmare he had.

"Do you like the acid? Well, actually, it’s not really acid. I could shatter the bottle on this metal table and nothing would happen. But put it on skin or living tissue and snap, it burns. Feels good, doesn’t it?" he asked. Clint moaned as he felt the blackness of unconsciousness coming forward. Too many of his wounds were filling his mind with agony. He had lost too much blood. Not as much as he normally might have, but still a decent amount. Somehow all of this was affecting him worse than any other torture experiences. "I bet it felt just like the explosion that killed five agents when you bombed the Helicarrier."

"Go fuck yourself," Clint groaned but his mind replayed all the times he had been caught by one of his exploding arrows. The effect was rather similar. Burning, blistering, white hot agony. Well, depending on how close he had actually been to the bomb. Guilt tour through him. There were still at least seventeen people who had not been found from the Helicarrier attack. No bodies. No trace from their trackers. And no idea where they had been during the attack. The man smiled.

"Ah, a breakthrough. Shall we continue with the acid explosion? Or how about we delve into the same pain as your other targets. All arrows to the chest or neck, correct?" Clint's eyes flashed with worry before he could stop the feeling. If the man thought of doing an arrow to his chest, it could mean the end of his arching days forever. "Arrows it is."

\----------

Clint could barely groan the next time he returned to consciousness. The arrow that the other agent had shoved near his collarbone had just about tweaked the muscles around his vocal chords. It had amused the man to no end. All the way until Clint passed out staring at a second arrow looming over his heart. No amount of slapping and slicing could reawaken the archer.

New cuts and the feelings of bruising and swelling alerted Clint to his rough treatment during unconsciousness. Something he always wondered why ‘bad guys’ didn’t do in real life. It was like, once the person was out, they walked away. Made no sense. Course, Clint also knew that this extra damage didn't mean the end. All cuts had been treated by a sort of special rag. That bothered Clint to no end. Somehow, whatever was on this rag made it near impossible for anything to scab over. Including just minor scratches.

"Ah, back from the almost dead? Unlike your dear, dear handler." Clint snarled but all that came out was a breathless whistle sound. The arrow near his throat had really done some damage. It just made the man smile. His green eyes tingled with mirth. "How does it feel? Losing that one piece of you? Knowing that you can't even scream?"

Clint looked away, no sense in letting him know. But it actually was bothering him. Not being able to speak back to the guy made it that Clint couldn’t use one of his main methods to ‘piss off’ or interrogate his torturer. Now Clint had to rely on giving off angered facial cues. Something he was never all that good at from what Natasha and Coulson had always told him. Hence why they always knew he needed to visit Medical even if he said he was fine.

"This is so much fun. Don't you agree?" A pause. "Oh, right. How bout this?"

CRACK

Clint's eyes snapped open as pain assaulted his fingers. The man laughed. He had broken two of the archer's fingers. Actually, he had broken the two that held and pulled back on the bow string. Clint's index and middle. And he couldn't even cuss the man out. All he could think about was how long it was going to heal after all this, and if the fingers could be properly put back into place. Had his career be ruined?

"Aw, poor boy. Let's try this."

SNAP

Clint let out a muffled groan that caused as much pain in his throat as it did his left knee. The man had somehow kicked his knee so hard, it shattered the knee cap and pushed the two remaining bones out of alignment. Tears began to form in Clint's eyes. Jesus, was this guy going to break everything?

"At least your murders were fast and sure. Well, for most," the man growled. Clint shut his eyes as his mind focused back to the report he stole out of Fury's office. It was the day before Natasha took him to Tony's less known home in Miami but still a day and a half after Loki and Thor had left for Asgard. The report was about six agents who had gone to the medical center for treatment after Clint's attack. Two had died that night from third degree burns. One died the next morning from shrapnel causing internal bleeding. Another died from bleeding in his lungs that hadn’t been caught until too late. One more passed from smoke inhalation and the last was still in a coma with little chance of waking up again.

Guilt tore through Clint again. He knew it was his fault. He didn't need this freak show torture to prove that to him. All this did was help show how much they suffered. Clint deserved every bit of it. It was the only way he knew how to truly atone for the crimes. Forgiveness from others didn't help. Not even some of the families of the victims helped.

Yes, victims. That's what those men and women were. Victims of Hawkeye. They never should have been targeted. All of them should still be alive, unharmed. They would be alive if Clint had died before. If Clint had fought harder against Loki. If Clint gave in to death long before hand. Or maybe if he never even joined S.H.I.E.L.D. Everyone was right. He was a useless lump of a human being.

When he first began fighting Loki's control, Clint avoided killing Fury and Hill. But not once did he think of taking his own life. Selvig tried, early on. After the car ride, Loki ordered Clint to find a new base of operations. Selvig grabbed Clint's holster-ed gun and pointed it too his temple but then froze. The idea of death couldn't completely overpower Loki control. Clint and Loki had laughed at Selvig after. But now Clint could see the man had the right idea. If only the archer had listened.

"Selvig was a moron. Taking your own life would not have stopped me," the man called into Clint's shattering mind. It took all of two seconds for the archer to catch the mistake. Head and eyes snapping up, he focused. The illusion was gone now. Before the battered archer now stood the one and only:

"Loki."


	9. Humiliation

Clint winced. Not only was his once master standing before him, but speaking had really hurt his tortured throat. Loki clicked his tongue in admiration.

"Yes, dear Clinton. How nice it is to see you," Loki admonished. Clint snarled, ignoring the agony of his throat. Loki chuckled. "Well, for me, it has been wonderful. Escaping my prison is not easy, you know."

"I bet," Clint ground out, his voice cracking as his cords protested the vibrations. Loki smiled to his favorite archer moments before he sighed, turned and walked a small distance away from Clint. When he passed the metal table, it vanished. The god took no true notice. Clint, however, was startled and tried to cover it.

"I shall miss this," Loki admitted. Clint snorted, slightly surprised when his cords didn't protest the sound. "It was a great escape, while it lasted."

"What do you want?" Clint cried, his voice barely a whisper. Loki inclined his head back at the archer. His evil smile still in place. But deep in his green eyes, Clint could see the hint of something else. Something the archer wished he couldn't understand but he had seen enough on Natasha's victims; lust.

"You."

Clint paused. Confusion filtered into his eyes as he focused on Loki. He hoped that the word didn't mean what he thought it meant. But judging by Loki's attitude, Clint could only fear the worse. His body shook and he tried to hold back a groan of pain. The god laughed and turned away from the archer as all around them the room began to disappear, bit by bit. It was slowly replaced with a rundown warehouse. One that Clint recognized from Harlem. To his right, a Hulk sized hole let in natural light. His left had shattered windows facing another, much taller building. Somewhere above him, a crack in the ceiling from where Hulk dropped the Abomination part way through.

Deep in his mind, Clint pieced together what he thought was going on. Loki was getting revenge in some sick way here. In his own sick way. Clint just hoped that everything was part of the revenge. Even the image of what the archer had seen in the god's eyes had to be faked, right? It disgusted Clint to realize that he had fallen into the trap.

"All this? An illusion?" Clint cracked. Loki chuckled when Clint looked down to himself. His tank top was back to it's former brilliant white shade and his jeans weren't coated with blood. All of his pain, gone. Grey blue eyes focused on green ones.

"Yes. And elaborate illusion, designed to make you snap without a single injury," Loki called. Clint blinked in confusion before he dropped to his knees in shock. Stunned at the movement, Clint looked back and couldn't spot the chair he had once been tied to. Fuck... Everything had been Loki. It wasn’t the Council. It wasn’t a rouge S.H.I.E.L.D agent. It was just... Loki laughed, slightly harder then before. "You have been torturing yourself of your own volition, boy. All of that, was thanks to your tactical mind!"

"No," Clint declared, finally noting how easy it was to speak again. God, his neck. It... Everything must have been faked. Including his lack of ability to speak. Loki continued laughing.

"You showed me what to do! You told me all about the agents you killed. You asked me for death!"

"NO!"

"Yes," Loki hissed, finished with laughing. Clint clutched his head. His eyes squeezed shut as he tried to block out Loki's voice. "You welcomed me into your head with open arms."

Clint felt Loki beside him. He panicked. Throwing his arms out, he caught Loki on his chest with bare palms. Rather then be pushed back, Loki latched onto Clint's wrists. Clint started shaking as he stared up into those green eyes he so feared. Loki smiled before leaning forward and jamming his lips down onto Clint's. The archer was stunned. He couldn't move. Loki held his wrists in place but his taller body gave him easy access to Clint's warm lips. Humming in appreciation, Loki opened his mouth slightly. His tongue darted out and played against Clint's skin. The archer gasped, opening his mouth for Loki's assault. As the tongue wandered about the new area, Clint's mind caught up with him. He jammed his jaws closed.

Loki screamed into Clint's face. Quickly, he released a wrist to slap the archer. It made the jaw loosen in time for Loki to pull away. When Clint looked back, he was pleased to see a small line of blood coming out of Loki's mouth. The archer smirked in joy. Loki's eyes flashed angrily as he looked up and spotted the smirk. Growling, he decided it was time.

"Wipe that smirk off your face," Loki snarled. Clint felt like his smirk widened before his body betrayed him. The look vanished but reappeared on Loki's face. Confused as all sin, Clint focused on Loki. "You welcomed me and all my glory."

"No," Clint muttered as he backed away from the god. Loki laughed, straightening his body. Clint's eyes dropped to the ground. He couldn't believe this god. Loki was a liar. He knew that better than anyone. But why had his body betrayed him as such? Loki dipped back down by Clint's side. The archer didn't notice until the god placed a hand, almost lovingly, on his left cheek. Clint back peddled. "No!"

"Don't tell me you don't want this. Just sit still," Loki purred. Clint whimpered as a cool breeze struck his body. Looking down, he noticed his clothes had nearly all vanished. The only thing left on was his bland gray boxers. Crying out, Clint tried to curl in on himself but his body didn't move. It barely even shook. Loki laughed. He was truly going to enjoy taking the archer as his. "Now be a good boy. Follow my orders again."

"You ordered me to kill those men," Clint whispered so softly that Loki could barely hear him. It shocked the god for a moment. Loki frowned, but Clint still had his eyes closed. But just as the archer looked up, Loki knew what to say and smirked. Clint narrowed his eyes.

"I didn't order you to kill anyone. I ordered you to take down the Helicarrier. I ordered you to get the iridium," Loki smartly pointed out. Clint stiffened.

"But, Director Fury..."

"All on your own. All I did was look at you," Loki said with a laugh as Clint looked away. The god could tell that the archer was thinking back to that moment. It was only a few weeks ago, so the memory was still fairly fresh. Too bad the memory was tinged with blue. Blue that Loki put there in the first place. Clint wasn't sure if he could fully remember if he didn't he an order or not. For all he knew, Loki mentally told him to shoot Fury but never verbally said it. Either way, an order was an order. But if Loki did nothing except look, Clint was stuck with all the guilt of shooting his boss.

Clint groaned as he tried to get up and run, but his body obeyed Loki now. It was completely still. He didn't want this. He didn't want Loki. But he also didn't have a choice. Loki moved forward once again. Clint squeezed his eyes closed, the only piece of his body he could control. Blue tinged his vision for a moment.

"Yes, pet. Enjoy it," Loki whispered as he leaned his taller frame down to kiss Clint's neck. Clint groaned and closed his eyes as his body pushed back against Loki's chest. Having been lost in his own thoughts of blue, Clint hadn't even realized what was happening until the god began sucking hard. Shocked, he cussed.

"Fuck, no," Clint whimpered as he tried to pull away. Sadly his body still wanted to follow Loki's command. He stayed close to the god's warm frame. Clint found a groan coming close to escaping his mouth as Loki hit the nerve in his neck. Closing his eyes, he began cussing himself out. He couldn't enjoy this. It was wrong. He hated Loki. He didn't want to feel this. But he couldn't pull away. His body instead moved closer to Loki. Whining now, Clint tried to stop his ever growing need to moan. He didn't even notice when Loki changed from sucking on his neck to simply kissing and licking his ear lob.

"Come here," Loki ordered. Clint's body jerked back as the god whispered into his ear. He was hating how his body was responding. But he couldn't help it. Loki was great. He knew what he was doing. And Clint couldn't deny that. So all he could do was try to block it all out. But the number one thing S.H.I.E.L.D taught with torture techniques was to not blank out. Not only was it dangerous for whoever may be trying to rescue you, but it was also dangerous for you. You could lose too much if you blanked out during torture. Sometimes it was only time. Other times it was body parts. No matter what, it was dangerous. But Clint couldn't stand this. "I knew you had heart."

"Stop," Clint muttered as his mind began to crumble against the onslaught. He couldn't take much more. No more guilt. No more being used. But certainly, no more Loki. The god ignored the archer's plea. Even the own archer's body ignored him. It arched toward Loki as the god began to add rubbing his bare chest. Clint groaned. He couldn't take this. His mind closed in, and Clint knew no more.

\----------

Clint came too when Loki gave a victorious shout that echoed through the warehouse. The god's cry covered Clint's mind as it utterly shattered. It was done. Done with guilt. Done with S.H.I.E.L.D. Done with Loki. Loki continued with a few more soft kisses on Clint's lips before focusing, fully, on the broken figure below him. Slowly, the trickster pulled back and let the man drop to the dirty floor. Loki laughed. He couldn't help it. This was what he had wanted all along. A broken archer. But knowing that it wasn't fully done, Loki leaned in.

"Just know, I wouldn't have been able do this unless some part of you wanted this," Loki whispered into Clint's ear. Clint shook as he felt Loki's warm breath pass by his ear. Loki walked away. Watching the archer for another minute or so, Loki began laughing. His laughter echoed through the warehouse long after he had already disappeared.

Clint sobbed in humiliation as he curled against himself. He was an Avenger. A highly trainer sniper. One of the best agents at S.H.I.E.L.D. Yet he had allowed this to happen. His cold skin wasn't warmed by the reappearance of his clothes. He curled tighter, barely noticing. He still felt naked. Ripped in half, destroyed, utterly ashamed. Another sob racked his body as tears began to show in his eyes. Not caring about the emotion, Clint let them fall. But before he fully drifted off into his shattered mind, he let out one last sob:

"Tasha, help."


	10. Information and Imposters

Natasha screamed and cursed, switching from English to Russian so fast it confused Bruce and Steve. She jumped to her feet and began to work on correcting the instruments that had been tracking Clint but they just suddenly stopped. They had been so close at a location and then the blips paused before not returning all together. Bruce and Steve calmly watched as the assassin beat the machines and cursed some more. It took maybe three minutes of this before Tony came rushing back into the room.

"Did we fin-" he started asking but hesitated as he watched the deadly woman snap. Tony gulped as he looked down to Bruce. The other scientist turned to face him, but a wary eye was still kept on Natasha. "What happened?"

"Um. We stopped getting hits," Bruce mumbled. Tony 'ah'-ed as he faced Natasha once again. She was harshly playing with dials, switches and knobs. Tony winced when he heard a pop. Natasha had just broken off a piece of the tech. Her added curse and near squeal of anger made the men tense more.

"Natasha?" Steve worriedly called to the S.H.I.E.L.D agent. She didn't respond to the super soldier. Just kept on messing with the instrument before her. It worried all of them that she didn't answer. She was normally so attentive. "Natasha."

"Hello? Anybody home?" Tony joked, expecting her to turn and lash out at him. Still, nothing. Sharing a look with the other two Avengers, he decided to push his luck. So what if it risked his life. That was something Tony was well known for. "Natasha? Natalia? Natalie? Nat? Natty? Natto? Shasa? Tash?"

Natasha paused as she listened to Tony's word play on her name. It almost made her smile. That was until she realized that Clint used many of them. After a moment, she spun on Tony. He didn't notice.

"Tasha?" he called. Natasha's eyes widened in surprise. Tony did not just use that nickname. That nickname belonged to Clint alone. No one had time to react before Natasha's right fist pounded Tony's face. The billionaire dropped back several steps from the force before recovering. His hands quickly came to his face to survey the damage. "Shit! Christ, Natasha!"

"Don't ever call me 'Tasha'," Natasha growled as she death glared Tony. The billionaire nodded. He wasn't going to argue with her. Especially now that she seemed to be uber insane woman.

"Natasha, calm down," Bruce warned. Natasha and Tony looked to him. Both were slightly surprised to see him standing. Steve was also on his feet, waiting to see what would happen next. Natasha snorted before turning back to the machine. She hesitated when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Slowly she tilted her head to look back. Steve was there. He dropped his hand.

"We'll find him, Natasha," Steve mumbled. It took her a minute to realize the soldier was trying to calm her, completely missing the absolute certainty that it was going to happen. Not hope, but certain that Clint would come back. Sighing, Natasha looked away and nodded. She knew he was right. Even if the others gave up, she'd keep going. Clint would be fine. All she had to do was believe.

"Yeah," she whispered.

"JARVIS is running facial recognition on nearly every video in the world," Tony softly remarked. Natasha and Steve looked to him, surprised. Steve remembered that same tech being used to find Loki and Clint once before. Natasha didn't even realize that Tony had that tech. Bruce snorted, looking about the room and feeling the tension. He needed to diminish it a bit before Hulk began to get antsy.

"You so would have lost," the doc noted. Tony glared at his science buddy.

"Hey, at least mine is still running!" Tony snapped. Bruce shrugged. Well, that ‘joke’ didn’t go as he planned. Guess it was option two. Remove himself from the situation. Tony was fast on his heels. "Hey! You listen to me! I had a shot!"

Natasha smiled as she faced the ground. It felt nice having more than just Coulson watching their backs. Yes, there had been times that Hill or Fury showed their concern or they had been with a larger team but it was never like the care that Coulson and now the other Avengers were showing. Too bad Clint wasn't there to see it. Steve cleared his throat. The assassin raised her eyes to stare at the super soldier.

"We still have time. He'll be alright," Steve declared. Natasha nodded as she looked down the hall to Tony and Bruce. The two were having a rather heated argument. Her smile widened ever so slightly before she turned her gaze back to the man beside her.

"I know that. Now."

\----------

Agent Jones frowned as he glanced down at the sheet before him again. He had read the words over and over numerous times but still couldn't believe what it actually said. Looking around at other agents that were scattered about the public lounge area, Jones wondered if he should talk to someone about the page. But, the last line had written that he couldn't. Who knew who would be on his side.

_'Find Agent Clinton Barton, arrest him and bring him in alive or dead. Let know one else know, especially Director Fury and Assistant Director Hill. Moles are everywhere.'_ Jones sighed. Could he really do that? Bring the archer in like a wanted criminal? Then again... Had it really been less than a month since the Manhattan incident? The same incident that also had the Helicarrier attacked and nearly killed over fifty agents?

"Agent Kenneth Jones?" demanded a new voice. Jones jerked up in surprise. His eyes quickly focusing on Assistant Director Maria Hill. Gulping, he grabbed the order sheet before him and folded it closed. Hill took note of the panicked action but said nothing.

"Yes, sir? I mean, ma'am!" Jones responded. Hill tried to hide her smirk of amusement at the younger agent's expense. She did a good enough job for those in the room currently but if Fury or an older agent had seen, they would have known.

"I just heard that you got a private communication from a certain someone. Director Fury would like to know what it was about," Hill ordered. Jones frowned. Explicitly explained in his letter was the order to not let Fury or Hill know about what he was being told to do. He didn't respond. Hill smiled and she was suddenly flanked by at least four other agents. "You are going to be placed in the brig for a short time until you figure out your true loyalties."

"But, I haven't done anything!" The four men calmly walked over to his side and two of them grasped his arms. Together, they awkwardly dragged him to his feet. Jones didn't protest them, but he also didn't help them.

"You are withholding vital information from your direct commander and are following orders from a secondary command. That could make you considered a spy. Think about that with your time in the brig," Hill commented before cuffs were strapped to Jones's wrists and the four took him away. Hill sighed and looked down to the still folded sheet on the table. Smirking, she picked it up and quickly read it. "Shit."

Turning on her heel, Hill stormed out of the room. Rushing threw the halls of the Helicarrier, Hill quickly made it to Fury's office. Once there, for the first time that she ever remembered, she didn't knock. Hill simply barged in.

"Sir, you need to see this!" she told the Director. Fury glanced up quickly. Hill ignored his curious gaze and instead, slammed the paper down onto the desk. Ignoring her strange mood, Fury focused on the page before him.

"Fuck. How many of these were sent out?" he questioned. Hill frowned as she thought back to the report she had gotten only minutes before. She had glanced over it so quickly but she could still remember most of it. All she could hope was that she was right.

"At least thirty, sir. They seemed to be sent to those not working directly under you. And certainly only a handful that would actually have any chance of catching Barton," Hill reported. But then hesitated. Fury focused on her. He had noticed the pause. Sighing, she spoke again. "There was one name on the list that worried me."

"Who?" Hill hesitated again. Fury narrowed his gaze at her. Mentally he was willing her to report the news. Sighing deeply, as though to steel herself, Hill answered.

"Agent Sitwell." Fury frowned. He couldn't believe that such a good agent would turn against them. But then something rather important struck him.

"He works directly under me," Fury retorted. Hill frowned. It was true. Hill hadn't even thought of that as she dealt with as many of the others as possible. Jones isn't the only agent in the brig. He was just the only agent dumb enough to leave his orders behind.

"Only recently. He had been working under Agent Coulson." Fury nodded. That was true. Most of his orders to the newer handlers had been sent through Hill or Coulson, until the man had died. Now Fury had been ordering many new agents directly. It was certainly a new experience. He missed his long time friend. But he couldn’t think of that now. He needed to focus and save Barton or Coulson would never forgive him.

"Why does he worry you?" Fury questioned, leaning back in his chair. Hill shifted. She knew that Fury didn't know much background on many agents that had recently been given direct orders from him, but she had figured that the older man would have seen the closeness of the two agents.

"Sir, Sitwell and Coulson were very close friends. I believe he may hold some resentment towards Barton for what happened," Hill stated. Fury nodded and glanced back at his computer. Hill sighed, guessing that maybe she assumed too much. His one good eye suddenly widened in shock before narrowing in anger.

"I hope you're wrong Agent Hill," Fury muttered before standing. Hill tilted her head in confusion. "Sitwell just left for the day. Six hours before the end of his shift."


	11. What Happened to You?

Fury busted into the Council room in the Triskelion with Natasha, Steve, Tony and Bruce quick on his heels. The people on the four screens jerked up to look at the intruder while the man in the chair tried to curl tighter on himself. Natasha was quick to slip over and work on undoing the cuffs holding the chains that kept Clint strapped down. Steve and Bruce went around front of the archer to check on his condition. They were surprised to see not even a bruise marring his now paled skin. And there also didn’t see any signs of him attempting to escape. Including, no other agents in the room making sure Clint stayed put.

"What is the meaning of this?" a furious Council member shouted at the men and woman who entered the room. Tony and Fury both stood still, glaring at the four members. A few of them at least attempted to look sheepish in their blacked out images.

"I told you before. Agent Barton works for me. You were to not seek action against him until I deemed it necessary. This was not necessary," Fury snapped. Tony stiffened as his gaze shifted slightly to the Director before going back to glaring at the Council. Clint sagged in his chair as Natasha fully released him. Steve placed a gentle hand on the archer's shoulder to help catch his balance. Clint just leaned into it more until he had a flashback to Loki. Then he shuddered and slammed back against the seat. All eyes focused on the agent. "Barton?"

"Just get me out of here, please," Clint softly pleaded. Fury nodded as Natasha came around front and gently began to try and help her partner stand. It was slow work as Clint kept on wincing and no one knew if it was from pain or something else. But Clint knew. Loki had certainly done a number on him if even Natasha's gentle caresses left him remembering the god. As soon as the two assassins left, with Bruce right behind them, Fury, Steve and Tony turned their attention back to the screens.

"This is ridiculous. Remember Director, Barton may work for you, but you work for us," the angry member declared before logging off. Tony and Steve traded a glance. Did they really want the Avengers affiliated with these people then?

"What did you do to my agent?" Fury demanded. One of the other members signed off without a word. The other two looked at each other before looking back at the angered director.

"All we did was question him like a normal debrief due to your insistence from our last conversation. But, there was something wrong with him before. Agent Sitwell reported finding Agent Barton in Harlem. There was no fight as Agent Sitwell was easily able to led Agent Barton here. Agent Barton didn't even struggle against Agent Sitwell when he chained him to that chair. All your agent did was blankly stare at the floor," the female member reported. Fury noticed Steve and Tony shift.

"You haven't had him for the past twenty four hours?" Fury asked, even knowing that Sitwell had only been after Clint for less then six. But he wanted to be sure that that wasn't a cover. The female shook her head.

"No. We've actually only questioned him for about two hours before you showed up. And most of that time, he seemed to be regressing into a very fearful memory," the other remaining member mentioned. Fury traded a look with the two Avengers. They seemed slightly worried. "There are signs that something dangerous was used on that agent. I'd watch him carefully."

"We'll take that under advisement," Steve retorted before nodding and spinning around. Tony nodded at the two, snorted and then spun after Steve as the soldier left the room. Fury hesitated.

"Director. I fear that the others may not be as forgiving about this. Watch yourself," the female warned before both screens shut off. Fury sighed deeply before his one good eye focused on the chair that Clint had been strapped to. He paused. Something was really off about all of this. The Council was either lying or something did happen to Clint before. Now the matter was what. What happened?

\----------

The Avengers piled into Fury's Quinjet with little fear of anyone coming to bother them. Clint had (mostly) lead the way out with Natasha at his side the entire time. Bruce had been only a few steps behind, looking the archer over as they went. Steve had to rush a bit to catch them all but when he did, the Captain refused to take his eyes off of Clint. He could tell something horrible had happened to the archer but there didn’t seem to be any outward sign. Tony was a minute behind, on his cell phone.

"Okay, Peps! Listen, I'm busy right now so don't hand over your phone! No, don't!" Tony cried into the phone, pausing after each sentence to hear her reply. The others didn't respond to Tony as he spoke to Pepper. "Hey, I'm on my way to the Helicarrier now. I'll call you when I can get to Malibu."

"You're gonna leave?" Natasha growled in shock, turning to look at the genius after helping Clint into a seat. Tony frowned as he looked over the faces of his new friends. Everyone seemed just as upset, except Clint. He was basically staring at the floor. Tony couldn’t stop his grimace. As much as it pained him, he had to go through with this. "We just got Barton back and you want to leave?"

"Feathers will be fine. I do have a company to help run, and press that wants answers for Manhattan still. Do you really want Pepper to come and scream for not handing me over? Or better yet, do you want to deal with the press asking what happened?" Tony paused as he waited for someone to answer. No one did and it made the genius mentally want to scream. As much as he wanted to explain his real reason for ditching them, it was best they didn’t know what he was about to do. For their own sake, especially Clint’s. Behind him, Fury slowly entered the Quinjet and the doors closed behind him. "Thought not. Look, Legolas will be fine in your hands. If you really need me, just call. Right now though, Pepper needs me more."

"The press does need questions answered. And Stark is the best man for telling fucked up stories," Fury added, making nearly all the attention turn to him. He glanced quickly at Tony before giving the genius a quick nod. Tony gave him a soft smirk. At least someone understood what he was going to actually be doing. "Not much more he can do to help anyways."

"Thanks," Tony called. He smiled at the director before the full statement hit him. "Wait, are you calling me useless?"

“What if I am?” Fury wondered. Tony frowned. He really didn’t want to fight Fury right now. Especially considering that it had been Fury that called them about Clint having been brought to the Triskelion. Tony shook his head but shifted to stand off to the side, messing around on his phone while grumbling. Steve huffed his breath, looking down at Clint in worry. This hadn’t been the archer he met before. This wasn’t even a pale imitation. It was just... Nothing. Bruce used the time to check over Clint again. The only actual ‘injury’ Bruce could see was some small dots on Clint’s temples. Like a needle had been inserted there.

"Clint?" Natasha whispered when she looked back to her partner. His greyish blue eyes were distantly staring at the ground. But they didn't seem to be actually seeing the ground. They just faced that general direction. When he didn't do anything in response, Natasha sat down on her knees in front of him. Bruce shifted to give her more room. But Clint didn’t even twitch. "Clint?

"Is he okay?" Steve questioned softly as he moved closer to the two assassins and the doc. Natasha shook her head no. No one said a word for a minute as they waited for Clint to react. Finally, Natasha placed a hand on his knee. All he did was twitch away from her hand.

"I think he's blocking us out," Fury noted. Natasha frowned. She never knew the archer to do that. But, he did show all the signs of an agent that just shut down. It worried her more then before. Clint was trained. Trained to not black out like this. He was trained for torture. Hell, even his past trained him well for something like this. Yet here he was. Sitting on a Quinjet, surrounded by friends, tuning them all out. Natasha looked up to the others.

"They had to have done something to him. Something really bad."

\----------  
Yeah.... a day late.... Ugh. But I'm here now!

Anywho, Darius had spent most of the week being really good. Wednesday, I did something to my back and was in pain all day so hubby slept with him on that night, then Thursday and had to do it again Friday because Darius had a nightmare and I didn't want him coming in our bed hurting my back all over again. But Friday morning hit... And dear lord if he wasn't highly annoying! Constantly in my face repeatedly asking questions that I've already said no too. Giving me attitude, being too loud and bothering Baby Jason. Ugh. Hubby came home from work, and you could tell he didn't really believe my story of how Darius was being, then like ten minutes later he looked at me and was like 'how have you handled this all day?' Yup. Baby Jason has seemed to have gotten sick this week. His father isn't doing much better... Got him to get checked out and they couldn't find anything but gave him meds. It almost seems to have made it better but not well enough. Hopefully by the time he finishes his meds it will be fixed. As for Baby Jason, he vomited once that I am aware of and has a small bump where he had gotten his flu shot. No redness around the shot, just a tiny bump. Otherwise, he's been giving his parents a hard time sleeping.

Pray for me that things calm down in my life to the point that I have more time to write/edit! Until next time.


	12. Confused

When the Quinjet landed on the Helicarrier, it was Tony that was the first to leave. He didn’t even speak to the others. Just walked off before opening his suit around him and took off. Clint was surprisingly the second person to leave. Without a word, he just got up and took off. Not really knowing where he was going, Natasha was quick on his heels. She didn't say a word to him. Just followed.

Steve and Bruce waited in the Quinjet with Fury for an extra minute. Fury stared at the receding backs of his top assassins. He was worried. Wouldn't admit to it. But he was. Of all the agents to have something like this happen too, Fury wondered why it had to be Clint. The Director knew of the young man's past. Knew of every bit of pain that the archer had gone through. And that was why he didn't blame Clint for anything that happened.

"Director Fury?" Steve softly asked. Fury looked to the living legend. His normally sharp glare was now sporting a concerned glance. Steve sighed. "What’s going to happen now?"

"We talk to him. Find out what happened and get him over it. The Avengers need Hawkeye back," Fury admitted. Steve nodded as he looked down the hall that Clint had vanished from. Even though they had only had the Battle of New York behind them, Steve knew that Clint was the heart of the Avengers. Fury followed his gaze. Standing at the end of the hallway was an agent who had lost his girlfriend in the Helicarrier attack. Fury tensed as he watched the agent. Bruce noticed the man staring after Clint as well.

"Is there somewhere else we can take him? I mean, we all did head to Miami for a reason," Bruce pointed out.

"Barton has an apartment near Brooklyn. Romanoff will more than likely bring him there soon," Fury responded. Bruce nodded. He wasn't sure about going to a place that S.H.I.E.L.D knew about, but it would be better for Clint to return to somewhere he knew. Fury groaned lightly when the new found silence was broken by a loud buzzing noise. Steve and Bruce focused on the director as he dug a phone out of his pocket. "What?"

"Sir, are you back at the carrier?" Hill's voice sounded back, without a hint of hesitation at his biting voice. Fury frowned.

"Yes. Still in the landing bay, why?" he answered. Hill sighed in what sounded like relief. Surprised, Fury left the Quinjet and took off toward the bridge.

"Agent Sitwell would like to speak to you," she replied. Fury growled lightly. Oh boy, did he want to have a few words with Sitwell.

"On my way to the bridge now," was he last statement before hanging up and vanishing down a different hallway than the assassins went. Left behind, and still on the Quinjet, were Steve and Bruce. They both traded a look, wondering where to go from there. Neither one could go to find Tony. But they also didn't know where Clint and Natasha were headed. So they could either wander around aimlessly or follow Fury. But for now, they just got off the Quinjet and looked around, hopelessly lost.

\----------

"I don't need a babysitter," Clint grounded out as he disappeared into his small closet of a room on the Helicarrier. They were the first words Natasha had heard from him since getting in the Quinjet. She sighed, rubbing her bruising arm that she had used to catch the door before it slammed closed. Shaking her head at the archer, she waited by the doorway, knowing there wasn't much room in the whole place for both of them unless one or both of them sat on the bed. Clint was heading toward the bed that was on the far side of the room. All he wanted to do right now was lay down in the bed, fall asleep and never wake up.

"Clint, what happened?" Natasha asked when she watched her partner flop depressingly down onto his hard mattress. She winced when she heard the thump of something hitting a hard surface. When Clint reached up to his forehead, she guessed he must of hit it on the wall which was acting like a headrest. Wanting to not answer, Clint grabbed one of the free pillows on the bed and placed it over his face. Natasha growled at him.

"Don't want to talk about it," Clint mumbled into his pillow as a new headache began to sprout. He sighed in content at the pain. As much as he wasn't a narcissus or anything. It was just that focusing on the pain meant he didn't think about his guilt for following Loki and everything that followed after. Natasha moved further into the room and shut the door. Clint slowly moved one eye out of the pillow to look at her. She had her hands on her hips, her right foot was tapping, and her eyes were narrowed. He sighed again. "Nat, please. Just drop it."

"You should tell me the problems. It will help," she countered. Clint frowned. He used to use those words on her whenever she dropped into a memory from the Red Room. Having them tossed back at him made him realize how annoying they were. With a deep groan, he rolled onto his side, facing her.

"Did it ever help you?" he questioned, believing the answer to be a negative. He was more than stunned when she nodded in confirmation. Growling at her positive response, Clint sat up. "What do you want to hear?"

"What happened with the Council?" she pressed. Clint snorted. That was the easy one. If that was all she wanted, he'd be fine telling her that.

"Questions to be answered. Just a normal debrief," he snapped. Natasha's eyes narrowed even further. She could tell there was something else. But how could she get at it if he wasn't going to willingly give up the answer?

"What about before them? Did Sitwell do anything to you?" Clint chuckled darkly. All he could think about was Loki. What the god had told him. And even worse, what the god had done to him.

"No."

"You were missing for a little over eleven hours or so. What happened?" she added. Clint stiffened. When he didn't speak for another few seconds, Natasha grew worried. "Clint?"

He still didn't speak. Wondering if he disappeared into his mind, Natasha stepped forward. Clint didn't react. Frowning, she kneeled down in front of him. He didn't even twitch. Sighing, she placed a hand on his knee. She didn't even a second to comprehend what happened next before she found herself on the floor, Clint on top of her and a sharp pain in her chin. Clint's greyish blue eyes were dark in anger and something else. Something that looked like shame.

"Clint?" Natasha called, pushing the archer off of her and back onto the bed. Clint just shook his head even as he allowed her to move him. But he could tell that she wasn’t going to drop the subject of what happened. Growling, he jumped off the bed, intentionally kneeing Natasha in the face to get her to back off. She splayed backwards as Clint used her surprise to get to his door and rushed off. Natasha didn’t even get a second to comprehend before Clint was gone. “Clint!”

\----------

Clint rushed through the busy halls of the Helicarrier as he tried to escape Natasha. He blindly shifted down hallways until he began to grow slightly tired. Growling angrily at himself, Clint focused on his tired frame as he slowed down to walking. Normally, the archer could run laps around the large 'boat.' But right now, he was still recovering from Loki's mind control, the battle and now even the torture he had endured. He was not only physically exhausted but he was mentally exhausted. All Clint wanted to do now was find a dark corner, curl up in it, fall asleep and never wake up.

"Sir, I swear, they told me if I didn't get him, they'd kill him! I was trying to save him!" Sitwell's voice rang down the halls to Clint's ears. Frowning, Clint looked to where the sound could be traveling from. Just above him was a vent cover. Staring at it, the archer ran through his mental map of the whole system. It took him only moments to realize this vent was connected directly to the one in Fury's office.

"So that's how the rumors start," Clint muttered to himself before jumping up to knock the cover off enough so he could grab the ledge. Jumping again, he caught the side and pulled up. He just about made it in the system and replaced the cover by the time Natasha rushed by looking rather flustered. Clint scowled at his partner before turning down the small space towards the director's room.

"What do you mean by that, Agent?" Fury growled low as Clint neared. Noting that he hadn't missed anything, the archer assumed that Sitwell's earlier comment must have made the director hesitate. It was a little surprising considering nothing normally made the hardened director pause.

"I mean that my orders from the Council stated that he was to come in alive but if he fought, kill him. I was protecting him, I swear," Sitwell told him. Clint scoffed until he realized he seriously didn't remember Sitwell finding him. Nor could he remember the older agent handing him over to the Council. He had blacked out after Loki and then came too before the Council. _'Maybe he was protecting me.'_ Clint thought to himself.

"Oh? Protecting him by turning him over to the people who, only hours before, ordered his death?" Fury calmly asked. Clint heard Sitwell sharply intake a breath.

"They didn't inform me of that. Just that I was the only one most likely to bring him in alive and if I wanted to protect him to get there first," Sitwell responded. Clint frowned. He couldn't understand why the agent's orders were so different from what the Council so obviously wanted. "But sir, something happened to Barton before I reached him. He was kneeling down in an empty warehouse. Nothing around him. But, the floor looked like it was cleared, recently. I was just looking into the power usage for the area."

"That can't be right,” Fury’s voice replied as there was a shift of papers.

"Sir, I swear. Barton was not himself when I brought him before the Council. It was almost like he had been tortured before but I don’t know how," Sitwell reported. Clint shook his head of memories as images of Loki filled his mind. He didn't want to hear any more of this. That was enough. The archer knew what happened and really didn't want to talk about it.

Slowly and silently, Clint backed his way out of the vent shaft. As soon as he was back to where he started from, Clint lightly kicked open the cover and shimmied out. He dropped to the floor and just about put the cover in place when he heard them.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the bastard traitor. Looks like we might get our revenge after all." Clint sighed as he leaned his forehead against the cold metal wall before him. He knew the voice was an agent who had lost his partner during the attack. The same attack that Clint initiated. He was screwed but he couldn’t tell if he liked the idea or not.

"Shit."


	13. Protect Yourself

They ended up in a dusty, unused hallway with a door at the end. Clint barely remembered getting there, mostly due to the hard knocks to his head. Though he found it funny, the one group he'd willingly follow for torture is the only group that actually attacked him like he'd run. As they went further down the hall, and closer to the door, the four agents who had grabbed him began to get antsy.

"Jeff, you sure we can do this?" one asked. Clint smirked. Now they were wondering? Not before? Jeez, Fury really should look into maybe cleaning house.

"We'll be fine Chris. Just keep quite," Jeff responded. "Sides, we're only getting a little payback."

"Yeah, not like we'll kill him like he did our friends," someone else added. Clint winced at the harsh tone but knew he deserved it. Hell, he'd be glad if they killed him. It would certainly end the guilt that was going to be slowly killing him.

"Guys, stop saying names!" the fourth one called as he opened the door at the end of the hall. Clint slipped inside without any prodding. The four hesitated now. It was long enough for Clint to get a good way in before turning and falling to his knees, waiting.

"Anyone feel that this may be a trap?" Chris spoke up before they all agreed they were being paranoid. With a vocal negative, the four men entered and found Clint kneeling on the ground with his hands clasped behind his back. Again, they hesitated. "We sure?"

"Agent Colleen Fistberg," Clint suddenly recited, determined to get this all over with. Jeff stepped forward and hit the archer's cheek with a powerful right hook. Clint fell the to ground and slowly worked his way back up, the swelling already appearing.

"Don't you ever say her name," Jeff ordered. Clint nodded but knew that he'd say it again if the agent hesitated. Chris then stepped forward and sent a harsh left jab. All men heard a sharp crack. Clint bit his tongue to hold back a cry of pain. When Chris backed away, the blood began to stream down the archer's face. That made the four agents trade a glance before they descended onto Clint.

Punches, kicks, slaps and stomps fell onto Clint so fast that he dropped to his side and instinctively curled up on himself. That just seemed to enrage the men more. Soon, a lot of the attacks focused on Clint's left side until he unfurled and they could get at his stomach. Cracks echoed through the room as they began breaking bones and all too soon, the group turned Clint into a writhing mess.

Blood seeped from his nose, split lip, his tear duct on his right eye, and from his left ear. Clint could barely see around the swelling in his eyes and his hearing had diminished. He knew the swelling would die down within a few days, so he wasn't worried that it would effect his future. If he survived long enough to have a future. But the main thing, the four had also thankfully missed hitting his fingers. So he could still use his bow and arrows. That fact alone had Clint’s grimace into a small miserable smile.

"What the fuck you smiling about?" one of the four demanded. Clint recognized his voice as the one who said to stop calling out names earlier. "Fucking traitor."

"Hey, we missed his hands," Chris pointed out. Clint froze. They wouldn't. They couldn't. Greyish blue eyes focused on Jeff as best as they could. The agent gave the archer an evil smile.

"Break them, break them so he can never fire again," Jeff stated. Chris and the other two grinned like idiots before they converged. Clint tensed as they reached for his hands. Chris was just about touching them when-

BANG!

The door slammed open. All five men focused on the suddenly bright area. There, standing in a halo of light, was an extremely pissed off, protective Russian assassin. Clint groaned lightly as he realized that Natasha was going to report this but, deep in the back of his mind, he was glad she got there before they broke his fingers. Slowly, curiously, Clint's gaze shifted to his tormentors. They were all frozen in fear at being caught. Especially by one who was, seemingly, unaffected by the events.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Natasha growled even though she already knew the answer. She could see clearly the blood dripping off of Clint’s body. The rapidly forming bruises made he clench her fists together. Clint gave her a meek smile as if to tell her that he was perfectly fine. Her stare hardened into a glare. That was when he realized he was in just as much shit as the four who had been beating him. Of course Natasha would pick up on the fact that he had let them pound him to pieces. Why couldn't it have been someone else that found them? "Well?"

"Uh..." Chris began before Natasha shifted to face him. Clint tried not to laugh as he heard the poor agent's voice catch in his throat.

"Barton fell," Jeff suddenly answered. Everyone's focus turned to him in various degrees of stunned silence. He looked sweaty and nervous but still stood tall against Natasha's evil look. "Yeah, we saw him fall out of the vents!"

"Okay. And what were you planning on doing with him?" Natasha questioned, the heat in her voice turning curious even as her eyes flicked upwards to show there wasn’t a vent anywhere near where they stood. One of the men did the same, judging by the paler skin tone. Clint stared at his partner, reading silent signs. She was still tense but gave off on air or relaxation. Her fists were clenching and un-clenching as she thought of what to do next. Green eyes were still hardened but the glare was now replaced with a softer gaze. Natasha was toying with them. No, not Natasha. Black Widow.

"We were... Um," Jeff paused as he tried to quickly think of a good reason for the four of them to still be standing over a clearly injured agent and seemingly not actively helping him. Even if it was Clint and there were many around that would have loved to join them.

"We were getting ready to bring him to Medical!" one of the still unnamed agents lied. Black Widow smiled as she listened to the lie. She had been standing behind the door for a while. In that time, she had heard them mention breaking Clint's fingers. There was no way she'd allow that.

"Oh. Cause I thought I heard mention of breaking his fingers," Black Widow cooed as she stepped into the room. The four agents stepped back away from her. Now they weren't just scared, they were petrified. Even Clint felt a chill run down his spine. "Did I hear correctly?"

No one answered. Whether it was because of fear of Black Widow or that they had lost their voices, Clint didn't know. All he knew was that his partner's eyes narrowed once again and she slowly looked down to stare at Clint.

"Clint?" she asked him. Not wanting to admit to anything, Clint looked away from her. Black Widow nodded. "I see. You four, run. Now, before I call the other Avengers down on your asses!"

The group followed her command so fast that her red hair swayed as they ran past. Clint smirked slightly at the sight even as he turned and laid down on his back. He was partly relieved that they now couldn't attack his fingers, but he was upset that the beating was over. He deserved it. Deserved every broken bone, every cut, and every bruise. It all helped him see how truly evil he was for attacking his friends and co-workers.

A sudden gentle touch on his right shoulder made Clint jerk. The touch vanished quickly. Turning his greyish blue eyes back toward the source, he saw Natasha with a worried gaze looking down at him. She was on her knees beside him.

"Hey," he whispered to her. Natasha gave him a very soft smile. Then it transformed to something else. Clint barely had a second to try and figure it out before she sharply punched his arm. Surprisingly in a spot that hadn’t been hurting how. How the hell had she seen that? "Ow! What the hell Tasha?"

"You idiot! Why did you let them do this to you?" she called. Clint frowned but didn't answer. It was too hard to try and explain it to her. Hell, it was hard just to admit that he had allowed himself to be beaten up. "I've seen you take on over twenty men. Why couldn't you take on those four bullies?"

"Cause I deserve it! Tasha, I killed our co-workers! I killed their friends, family! I betrayed S.H.I.E.L.D!" Clint screamed, shifting to get up even if it hurt. Actually, especially cause it hurt. Natasha sat back in surprise, unable to help him while distracted. She couldn't believe that he believed what he was saying. While she had known Clint blamed himself for the whole incident, she hadn’t realized how bad he had gotten. Slowly, the archer's eyes began to tear. "Tasha, I killed Coulson."


	14. You Aren't Alone

"Director Fury?" declared a sharp voice. Fury looked up from his paperwork concerned. He had previously told Hill that he didn't want to be disturbed yet here someone was. As his one eye focused on the intruder, he was taken aback. There stood Natasha, holding Clint up by supporting his waist. The injuries littering his body made the old agent wonder what the hell had happened since they returned. It was worrying that this had happened on the Helicarrier, let alone on the short amount of time they had gotten there. Clint had somehow gotten out injury free from some type of torture and dealing with the Council. But returning to a place considered home, the archer suddenly looked like hell cooled over.

"What happened?" Fury demanded as he stood up, concerned. Natasha briefly looked down at Clint. The archer turned to stare at the floor. There was no way he was going to allow those other agents to get in trouble for trying to get revenge. Even if it cost him his job, or even his life, Clint would never give in. Fury waited, moving to stand in front of his desk to get a better picture of what Clint looked like. Natasha growled lightly at Clint's silence. Seeing as her partner wasn't going to answer, she would.

"I'm bringing Clint to his apartment. Seems safer there," Natasha stated. Fury glanced at Clint. It took him only a few seconds to analyze all the damage. As horrifying as it seemed, Fury could tell that Medical wouldn't be able to due much for him that Natasha didn't already know about fixing. With a deep sigh, he agreed.

"I'm going to ban Barton from the Helicarrier until all this is sorted out. When we finally sort out all those who would cause him trouble, then he'll be allowed back," Fury responded, ignoring Clint’s wince at the word ban. Natasha nodded, agreeing with the order. With her business done, she slowly turned Clint around and the two assassins started to leave.

"I don't need to be banned," Clint whined as they got closer to the door. Natasha shook her head as Fury stood taller, preparing to verbally fight with the archer.

"Apparently you do if you're gonna allow other agents to beat the shit out of you," Natasha mentioned as the two disappeared around the corner. Fury sighed as he watched them. It took an extra two minutes for him to realize what Natasha had said. Cursing, Fury went back to his desk and got ready to call Hill.

"Hill? Get me a list of everyone who would be affected by the Helicarrier attack. Someone got a hold of Barton and I want to know who," he didn't even wait for his second in command to respond before he ended his link. Looking back to his door, Fury remembered all the damage done to his top agent. "Fuck."

\----------

Natasha and Clint made it to the Helicarrier’s tarmac without meeting a single other person. Figuring it was thanks to Fury or Hill, Natasha didn't even question it. She just continued down her path, intent on getting Clint to safety. Once on a completely refueled Quinjet, Natasha dropped Clint off in the co-pilot's chair before setting herself up in the pilot's. She began switching different things as she prepared to take off. Not knowing how to fly as well as Clint, it took her longer than really needed to work out what needed to be done.

"Were you going to let us know that you and Clint were leaving?" a voice called amused. Natasha looked over her shoulder to see Bruce and Steve standing behind her chair. Sighing, she turned back and continued prepping the Quinjet. Steve had his hands on his hips and a slightly curious look on his face. Bruce had his arms crossed his chest and a small smirk gracing his lips. They both figured that Clint had probably asked to leave.

"I don't need babysitters, you know," Clint again whined when he heard the new added group of people. Natasha scoffed. But before she could respond, someone else spoke first.

"We aren't babysitting, we're making sure you're okay. We have been worried about you," Steve explained. This time it was Clint who scoffed. Natasha slowly started the engines and prepared to take off. None of the others were paying attention to her now.

"Yeah, sure," Clint mocked, falling into a deep depression as he curled up in his seat. Steve moved forward, prepared to make sure Clint understood they cared as he spun the chair around. The two men gasped at their first true glance at Clint's new appearance and Steve’s aggravation died.

"Jesus, Clint, what happened?" Bruce asked as he moved closer to examine the damage. As the doctor started fussing with the injuries, Clint winced and tried to turn his chair back around. Sadly, Steve hadn't let go, so he held the seat firm. Natasha grinned, knowing that the others would have her back. Very carefully, she actually took off and began plotting a course to Bed-Sty. None of the guys even noticed.

"Nothing. I'm fine," Clint hissed.

"This is the very definition of not fine, Clint," Bruce moaned as he noted that the archer's nose was broken. He didn't report it, figuring everyone but Steve knew. But as Bruce examined the damage, he realized that the Other Guy wasn't trying to come out. Hiding his surprise, the scientist realized that though he was angry, he was still calm.

"What happened?" Steve pressed. Clint twisted away from Bruce before sliding out of his seat and walked (well limped actually) away. This time, Bruce felt the well known push. He pushed back. Apparently the Other Guy was okay with helping Clint but not okay with Clint refusing help.

"I told you, nothing."

"Clint, you're limping! This isn't nothing!" Bruce demanded. His brown eyes gazing at the archer's haggard form. Steve released the chair and walked toward Clint. The agent winced but stood his ground.

"Clint, please, just tell us."

"He got attacked by four other agents," Natasha answered for her silent partner after a minute. Clint glared at her when Steve stiffened and Bruce's eyes flashed green. She didn't add that he could have taken them. Nor did she mention that Clint had allowed them to attack him.

"Jeez, they did this to you?" Bruce questioned, his voice showing that he was clearly trying to hold the Other Guy back. Clint's greyish blue eyes hardened and narrowed into slits as he looked back to the others.

"What do you care? You barely know me, and most of that time that you did, I was trying to kill you!" Clint snapped. Steve's eyes now narrowed as Bruce flinched back. Neither was going to accept that. But it really did show something was wrong with Clint if he was pushing at Bruce's already fragile calm.

"You were under Loki's control. You weren't _yourself_. Besides, you helped take him down," Steve told him, stressing some of the words like he personally actually knew the archer. Clint scoffed and looked away. He remembered the battle just as well as the others. While out there fighting, he hadn’t really thought about what he had done under Loki control. But after the battle, as everyone began cleaning up the areas effected by the attack, Clint fully realized the extent what he had done.

"I killed so many people. Injured even more. I don't think helping defeat Loki can save me now," Clint muttered with a shake of his head.

SMACK!

Clint paused as his one good cheek began to turn bright red. He hadn't expected that. Nor had anyone expected the one who delivered it. Steve and Natasha just stared, unsure what to do. Bruce stood before him, staring at his hand in wonder. He hadn't meant to hit Clint. All he did was react. And, that reaction had made him slap the archer, hard. Getting over his surprise faster then Clint, Bruce focused on the man.

"Why are you being so dumb about the truth? Loki made you do all of that! He made you attack all those people! He was the one who first put you in that position! Yes, you can still feel guilty. It's understandable. I would know that more than anyone. But, you can't go around thinking that people beating you up for revenge is okay!" Bruce sharply declared. Clint stared at him in shock. Thankfully he wasn't the only one. Steve and Natasha were even stunned. "Clint. It's not okay. You've been through so much this past couple of weeks. Just take some time. Let us help you."

"What if I don't deserve help?" Clint whispered so softly that Bruce almost missed it. "What if Loki never ordered me to kill all those people? What if I did it all on my own? Would you still be willing to help?"

Bruce stood stock still as he processed what Clint said. Steve frowned as he sorted through the words, wondering where the archer had gotten these insane ideas. Natasha shifted the Quinjet to autopilot before turning and walking into the cabin. She quickly reached Clint and pulled him close as she sat on the bench beside him. Clint sighed deeply as he rested his head against her neck.

"We will always be here to help."

And with that, Clint began sobbing. He leaned in closer to his partner and broke down. Hot tears rapidly soaked Natasha's outfit as he cried into her shoulder. He was done. Done trying to be strong. Done holding back his fear. Done hiding his overwhelming sadness. But most of all, he was done being alone. Steve shifted himself to sit by Clint’s free side and Bruce moved to sit on the floor in front of Clint.

“You don’t need to be alone. We can help you however you need, including your current medical issues,” Bruce pressed, his voice tinging a bit on humor. Clint huffed out a sob that also had Natasha and Steve snorting. They stayed like that for about a minute or two before Clint slowly pulled away from Natasha. With him being free, Bruce moved to check the archer over better. Natasha and Steve shifted away a bit more to give Bruce room to work.

“Clint, can you tell us what happened?” Steve asked, feeling bad about having to press this. But he needed to know. He needed it so he could help. Clint’s eyes closed as if he was trying to repress the memories that Steve was asking about. It hurt and the Captain looked up to Natasha as if she could help. But the spy had a large frown on her face that told Steve she wouldn’t be able to get Clint to open up. “Please, we need to know how to help.”

“Loki,” Clint finally whispered as Bruce pressed gently against a rather large bruise that had formed below his ribs. The Quinjet went still a second later. Had they heard that right? “Loki got a hold of me, tortured me. Told me of everything I’ve ever done.”

“Clint, Loki is still in Asgard,” Natasha mentioned, her voice flat and stiff. A sign that she was getting furious. Clint shook his head. He knew what he saw. What he felt. What he heard.

“He was there. He... He told me that I killed them without his order. I just did it,” Clint mumbled. Natasha glanced to Steve who had a hardened face.

“I don’t Loki was actually there. Is there a possibility that you were tricked?” Steve questioned, his voice soft and almost sad. It seemed more like he was begging for a different answer. Something like he didn’t believe Loki could have done this. Clint shook his head.

“He used magic. Changed shapes. Healed me,” Clint listed. Steve’s lips set into a firm line. Loki could do those things. Steve knew that. Magic... But, Thor would have come and let them know. Wouldn’t he?

“I noticed, before you had gotten attacked, that there were pinpricks in your temple. Do you have any memory of what could have caused that?” Bruce wondered, lifting Clint’s head up a bit so he could get a better look at the swollen eye. Clint frowned, his eyes focusing on the doctor. The four agents hadn’t gotten at his head. Never mind his temples. And they only attacked with fists and feet. Hell, even Loki hadn’t seemed interested in creating pinpricks in his temple.

“No.”

“Hello Quinjet filled with Avengers!” Tony’s voice suddenly called through the speakers. Everyone stiffened. When Bruce let go of Clint’s face, the archer dropped his head again. Seriously? Does the man have access to everything? “Please turn that jet to Malibu.”

“Why? You left us,” Natasha growled, getting to her feet so she could go and turn off the communications relay. Clint looked up and actually focused on who was in the jet. It was now that the archer realized that the genius wasn’t with them. What was he doing? Had he abandoned them all? Did he actually... Did he blame Clint for everything too? Tony’s voice huffed.

“Yeah, cause I was looking things up. Like, did you know S.H.I.E.L.D has a lovely device that my wonderful father made that induces realistic fears upon those put inside it?” Tony questioned, his voice sharper and harder than the ‘happy-go-lucky’ words seemed to imply. Bruce perked up. A device that induced fears? That would need access to the patient’s mind. Access like temple pinpricks.

“Would it cause small pinprick marks against the patient’s temples?” the doc called. There was a pause as everyone digested this.

“How... Wait, does Bird-brain have them?” Tony countered confused for half a second before worried.

“Yes,” Bruce replied. Tony cussed rapidly.

“Tony, what does all that mean?” Steve snapped, breaking the genius out of his rants. Clint’s head dropped down again. None of this was making sense to him. “Why does that matter?”

“Cause, I think S.H.I.E.L.D, or someone in S.H.I.E.L.D used this thing on our little archer,” Tony informed. Eyes wide, Natasha headed over to the pilots seat and dropping into the seat so hard that her ass twinged. She needed to change course. Now. “The device needs a bunch of drugs injected into the person before being placed inside. None of the patients ever even realized that this part had been. They seemingly wake up in whatever torture event that their mind could concoct. And the more the person feels guilty over something, the more the fears press on that.”

“What?” Clint muttered. _‘I wouldn't have been able do this unless some part of you wanted this.’_ Could it be true? Could he have been placed in the thing Tony was talking about? The drugs had left a sour taste in his mouth. They hadn’t been any he had been used too. Could that have passed through the device? Alerted him to the change? But... Why would someone do this?

“I’m gonna need a bit more information but, I’m pretty sure. Fury just sent me a shit ton of data too. Apparently Sitwell-”

“He was who brought me to the Council. Told Fury he was protecting me,” Clint stated, looking up as if Tony could see him through the speakers. Steve got to his feet and began pacing the jet. Bruce moved closer to Clint, pressing lightly on the archer’s ribs. Clint didn’t even wince.

“And I think he may have been. As soon as he left the Helicarrier, the amount of power being sent to the warehouse the agent found you in, just vanished. Likely, when he moved in to get you, the other assholes packed up,” Tony explained. “But, if that’s the case, you need to get here asap. Dad said that patients would likely need another set of chemicals that would stop your mind from going insane on you.”

“What?” Natasha, Bruce and Clint called. Tony huffed.

“Listen, the drugs that had to have been given before getting in the device basically opens up all the dark portions of your brain. While you may not be feeling shit now, you close your eyes to rest and it will all be there waiting,” Tony added. Clint paled. Was that true? If he fell asleep right now, he’d be trapped with Loki all over again? Wait... Does that mean Loki didn’t actually... “I got JARVIS working on the counter acting drugs from Dad’s notes. They should be ready as soon as you get here.”

“Tony, thanks,” Natasha said, moving to look back at Clint. The archer gave her desperate look. He was exhausted but with Tony’s warning, he really, really didn’t want to rest. And the others must have figured the same thing as Bruce put down the pain meds he had been about to give Clint. He was not going to subject Clint to any more torture. “We’ll all get through this. Things will be okay.”

\----------

Yay! We are all done with this story! Will likely post the sequel in a little bit.

Darius is doing good. Currently making a food mess in the house... But, good. We had an adventurous weekend. Sunday we saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra which was an amazing show! We sat front row so the band members could really see us and tended to wave to Darius when they had a second to do so. Monday night we went to Monday Night Raw. We sat third row TV side. If you watch Raw then look for the woman in purple and blue hair with glasses. That's me. Darius is the child in the purple Firefly Funhouse shirt. Had a troublesome week just because of lack of sleep for all of us, but we seem to be catching up pretty good now. Baby Jason is doing good. Yesterday, everyone had him laughing by playing various games. This morning, he threw up on his parents after being put in the car. Hopefully he isn't ill.


End file.
